Irish Democrat August - September 2000

Imsh Oem 

August/September 2000 Connolly Association: campaigning for a united and independent Ireland ISSN 0021-1125 60p 

A fresh look at 

the Casement 

legacy 

Page 5 

Winning the 

United States 

for MacBride 

Page 7 

Unearthing 

Ulster's real 

tradition 

Page 12 

BILL 

POLICE 

REFORM 

Democrat reporter 

AS THE Irish Democrat went to press, 

British government attempts to dilute the 

proposals for policing in the North set 

out by the Patten commission and 

unionist threats to withdraw from the 

Northern Ireland assembly over the title 

of the new police force were casting a 

deep shadow across the Irish peace 

process. 

While nationalists and republicans 

have lobbied heavily for the Police (NI) 

Bill to be brought into line with Patten's 

recommendations, unionists have 

continued to press for further 

concessions — including retention of the 

RUC's name — while accusing the 

government of 'pandering' (sic) to 

nationalist pressure. 

The draft legislation, incorporating 

amendments agreed in the Commons 

following the committee stage, was sent 

to the House of Lords for consideration 

in mid-July amid accusations from all 

sides of government treachery, betrayal 

and political chicanery. 

The Bill will now be scrutinised by 

the Lords, where further amendments 

are expected, before it returns to the 

Commons for ratification in September. 

Commenting on the Police Bill, 

Connolly Association general secretary 

Jim Redmond stressed that the 

legislation fell well short of the Patten 

commission's blueprint for a 'new 

beginning' to policing in the North. 

"As it stands, the Bill is incapable of 

winning the trust of nationalist and 

republican communities and is in danger 

of becoming a major stumbling block to 

advancing the peace process. 

"Supporters of the Good Friday 

agreement should write, email or fax 

their local MP and the Secretary of State 

to urge that the Patten report is 

implemented in full." 

Much of the media attention during 

July focused on the Secretary of State's 

decision to allow the name of the Royal 

Ulster Constabulary's to be 

'incorporated' into the 'title deeds' of the 

new Police Service of Northern Ireland. 

"However, it is clear from concerns 

raised by, among others, Sinn Fdin, the 

SDLP, the Irish government, US 

Congressmen, the Catholic Church and 

human-rights groups, including Amnesty 

International, that criticism of the 

legislation goes far wider than just 

nationalists and republicans," said Jim 

K 

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Connolly Association members join Newry residents In a show of solidarity with the heseiged resident of the Garvaghy Road. For the full story see page 3 

Redmond. 

Areas identified as falling short of the 

Patten recommendations include: 

• Restrictions on the Ombudsman's 

powers, including the power to act 

retrospectively, to investigate and 

comment upon police policies and to 

monitor police performance re public 

order maintenance 

9 The absence of references to human 

rights in the 'general functions of the 

police service' and few to the role of the 

Human Rights Commission 

• Existing RUC officers exempted from 

swearing a new oath 

• Policing Board powers restricted, 

including limits on initiating and 

conducting inquiries, and to "assessing 

the effectiveness of the Code in 

promoting standards of conduct and 

practice" (ie it will not be in a position to 

enforce the ethics code, a role which 

remains with the Chief Constable.) 

• Restricted role for District Policing 

Partnerships. Community policing, 

described by Patten as 'core function', is 

largely ignored as is greater authority for 

District Commanders to work with local 

communities 

• No guarantee that recruitment will be 

undertaken by an independent agency 

• Name of the RUC to be incorporated 

into the 'title deeds' of the new force 

while Secretary of State is left to rule on 

issues of symbols (badge etc.) and the 

flying of flags over police stations 

• Limited role for the Oversight 

Commissioner at the implementation 

stage and ambiguity over the 

postholder's independence 

• Recommendations on plastic bullets 

largely ignored 

A 100-page report published by Sinn 

F6in goes as far as to ai^ue that, in its 

current form, the legislation will 

implement only eleven out Patten's 175 

recommendations in full. 

Of the remaining proposals the 

document claims that 89 have been 

"subverted" while it has "insufficient 

information to judge the remaining 75". 

Launching the document, copies of 

which have been sent to the British and 

Irish governments, Sinn F6in's Martin 

McGuinness said: "The problem is that 

the British government disingenuously 

seeks to locate compromise as being 

somewhere between their proposals and 

the Patten recommendations. 

"Many nationalists have made clear 

that, for them, Patten is itself the 

Compromise." 

Senior SDLP figures have expressed 

similar concerns. SDLP policing 

spokesperson Alex Attwood stressed that 

the legislation was "deficient, not just on 

cultural issues of flag, name and badge 

but also on structural issues of human 

rights, independence of the Policing 

Board, accountability of the police and 

on the pace of policing change". 

Both parties have made clear that, as 

the legislation stands, they are not 

prepared to recommend that nationalists 

and republicans join the new police 

service — a point made "forcibly " to 

Tony Blair during telephone 

conversations with Irish Taoiseach Bertie 

Ahern in mid July. 

Concern over the legislation's 

deviation from Patten has also come 

from human-rights groups such as the 

Committee on the Administration of 

Justice (CAJ), a recipient of the Council 

of Europe Human Rights Prize. 

Welcoming changes agreed at the 

House of Commons committee stage 

the CAJ nevertheless expressed 

"disappointment" that the draft 

legislation had required 52 changes to 

bring it in line with Patten, and that, 

"despite all these changes, it still fails to 

mirror Patten in a number of key 

regards". 

The CAJ also expressed concern that 

the Implementation Plan had received 

"no external scrutiny" and had been 

drawn up by the same people who had 

drafted the initial legislation and "who 

have managed policing to date". 

"It is the measures outlined in the 

Plan that will ensure that legislative 

measures addressing human rights, 

community policing, and security and 

public order policing, either fail or 

succeed," a CAJ briefing document 

explains. 

Criticism has also come from a 

member of the Patten commission itself. 

Gerald W Lynch, president of City of 

New York University's John Jay College 

of Criminal Justice, told the Irish Times 

that the Bill would discourage Catholics 

from joining the new police force. 

He went on to warn that "it would be 

back to square one" if the Patten 

proposals to give the force a completely 

new name were not implemented in full. 

"The transfer of the draft legislation 

to the House of Lords provides an 

opportunity for the government to 

introduce the necessary amendments to 

bring it into line with Patten's 

recommendations. Failure to do so will 

hinder the chance of creating a just and 

accountable police service in the North 

for many years to come," said Jim 

Redmond.

Iwsh Oemoctut 

Founded 1939 Volume 55. Number 4 

Changed, changed utterly 

THOSE WHO still doubt that the peace process is paying tangible 

dividends, and argue against it on the basis that 'nothing has 

changed", would do well to reflect on the recent Drumcree events 

and the crisis which has hit the Orange Order. 

Five years ago there were 10,000 Orangemen gathered at 

Drumcree church when the leaders of the two main unionist parties 

danced their now infamous jig down the Garvaghy Road, 

successfully forcing their way down the disputed route. In 

hindsight, the event, which had a major bearing on Trimble's 

election to the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party, was arguably 

one of the last significant displays of 

'pan-unionism'. 

Since then, much has changed. The IRA ceasefire and the 

subsequent Good Friday agreement has put paid, for the time being 

at least, to any thoughts of maintaining a united unionist front 

against nationalists and republicans. 

The most recent Drumcree crisis saw numbers significantly 

down on previous years as the protest descended still further into an 

ugly show of sectarianism. Instead of being patronised by the 

leaders of the mainstream unionism, the loyal brethren of 

Portadown and their supporters have had to rely on a few steroidfuelled 

thugs from the UFF, with all the implied violence that they 

stand for. 

Unable to bring themselves to condemn the violence, the bigoted 

Portadown Orange fools-on-the-hill have remained utterly steadfast 

in their determination to continue their discredited protest and in 

their refusal to hold direct discussions with the nationalist 

community of the Garvaghy Road. 

Meanwhile, even Orange Order Grand Master Robert 

Saulters 

has joined calls for an end to the Portadown protests. Others, such 

as Fermanagh Orangeman and Ulster Unionist Party councillor 

Bertie Kerr, have called on the Portadown brethren to talk directly 

with the nationalist residents. 

In the larger political picture, both Paisley and Trimble, despite 

their erstwhile refusals, now sit in government with Sinn Fein — 

Paisley's party having adopted a laughable 'now you see us, now 

you don't' approach to the Assembly. 

Instead of sitting as a unionist bloc with a clearly defined set of 

beliefs, or a programme for saving the union, they sit glowering at 

each other, factionalised and fragmented. The Unionist 

has been replaced by the unionist all-sorts. 

monolith 

Despite all the bluster and stalling unionists of all varieties sit in 

government despite the IRA having not actually handed over a 

single gun or ounce of Semtex while 'their' security forces are 

being changed (hopefully) beyond recognition. 

The Drumcree crisis has, as one commentator put it, "split 

unionism into more parts than any IRA campaign could ever have 

achieved". They could easily have added that unionism had 

destabilised by nothing so much as it has by the republican 

nationalist peace initiatives. 

been 

As the reverberations of the IRA ceasefires continue to be felt 

throughout the bitterly divided unionist community, their world is 

increasingly split between those who continue to scream 'No' at 

each and every move towards equality and those who have seen the 

writing on the wall and who recognise the need to refashion their 

unionism into a more acceptable form. 

Let us not be mistaken about how much has yet to be achieved 

before the unfinished national-democratic project is secured, or 

how difficult it will be to ensure that republicans and nationalist are 

truly treated with parity of esteem and equality of treatment. Yes, 

there is a long way to go but, to paraphrase Yeats: "Things 

changed, changed 

utterly". 

Irosh OemocRAc 

Bi-monthlv newspaper of the Connolly Association 

Editorial Board 

Gerard Curran; Enda Finlay; David Granville (editor); Peler Mulligan; Moya St Lcger 

Production: Derek Kotz 

Published by Connolly Publications Ltd. 244 Gray's Inn Road. London WC1X 

tel 020 7833 3022 

Email: connolly@geo2.poptel.org.uk 

Printed by Multiline Systems Ltd. 22-24 Powell Road, London E5 8DJ Tel: 020 8985 3753 

8JR, 

and 

have 

News 

Irish Democrat August/September 2000 

Lib Dems axe community grants 

Dave Moran, a worker at The Roger Casement Irish Centre, addresses anticuts 

protesters outside Islington Town Hall in July 

IRISH CENTRES 


ISLINGTON'S LIBERAL Democrat 

council is to go ahead with plans to axe 

an £83,000 annual grant to the borough's 

Irish centre, effectively dooming it to 

closure. 

The decision to cut the grant was 

confirmed at a full meeting of the 

council on 20 July, despite widespread 

opposition from the local Irish 

community — the second largest in 

London — and a growing number of 

MPs. 

The council's move has generated 

widespread anger and bewilderment 

among north London's Irish community, 

especially as the centre provides a range 

of valuable welfare, cultural, social and 

educational services at a fraction what it 

would otherwise cost Islington council. 

The older and most vulnerable members 

at the community will be particularly 

hard hit as a result of the closure, 

campaigners argue. 

The campaign to save the centre won 

support from the Irish Ambassador, the 

Federation of Irish Societies and around 

20 MPs including the SDLP leader John 

Hume, Northern Ireland Deputy First 

Minister Seamus Mallon, former Labour 

spokesperson on Northern Ireland Kevin 

McNamara and local MP Jeremy 

Corbyn. 

An Early Day Motion in the House of 

Commons, tabled by Jeremy Corbyn, 

stressed that the £83,000 council grant 

"represents excellent value for money". 

• London's Lewisham Irish Community 

Centre was recently the target of an 

arson attack. The attack came within 

weeks of racist graffiti being sprayed on 

the building. Although it is not known 

whether the two incidents are connected, 

security at the centre is being tightened 

and the police are continuing to 

investigate the attack. 

European rights court rules against UK 

HUMAN RIGHTS 


THE GOVERNMENT of the United 

Kingdom has been found guilty of 

infringing the basic human rights of 

republicans detained at the notorious 

Castlereagh army holding centre. 

In early June, the European Court of 

Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that a 

confession extracted from Gerard 

Magee, obtained during a 48-hour period 

in which he was denied access to a 

solicitor, was in breach of his right to a 

fair trial under Article 6 of the European 

Convention. The court ordered the 

British government to pay £10,000 in 

legal costs and expenses. 

Magee was convicted by a no-jury 

Diplock court on charges of possessing 

explosives and of conspiracy to cause 

explosions on the sole evidence of his 

admission. 

Magee, who served the majority of 

his ten-year sentence, always claimed 

that he had been subjected to torture and 

that his confession had been extracted 

under extreme duress. 

Commenting on the ruling, Magee's 

solicitor, Patricia Coyle, stressed that this 

and a previous ECHR ruling "raises the 

prospect that any conviction over the last 

12 years based on confessions obtained 

in Castlereagh or Gough Barracks in the 

absence of a solicitor will be open to 

challenge on the basis that they, are 

unsafe and in breach of the right to a fair 

trial." 

An appeal against Magee's 

conviction has been lodged with the 

Criminal Case Review Commission. 

IRA allows statesmen to Inspect arms dumps 

DECOMMISSIONING 


THE IRA'S decision to effectively 

defuse the decommissioning impasse by 

allowing some of its arms dumps to be 

inspected by international statesmen 

Cyril Ramaphosa and Martti Ahtisaari 

has been welcomed by all except the 

most intransigent unionist No men. 

In their report to the International 

Independent Decommissioning 

Commission the ex-ANC general 

secretary and ex-president of Finland 

stressed that they had been "shown a 

substantial quantity of IRA arms" and 

had taken steps to ensure that the 

weapons and explosives could not be 

used without their detection. 

"We are satisfied with the cooperation 

extended to us by the IRA to 

ensure a credible and verifiable 

inspection. All our requests were 

satisfactorily met," their report 

continues. 

The two men plan to re-inspect the 

arms dumps on a regular basis to ensure 

that the weapons have remained secure. 

Irosti Oemoctuc d 

For a united and independent Ireland 

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"The process that led to the 

inspection visit and the way in which it 

was carried out makes us believe that this 

is a genuine effort by the IRA to advance 

the peace process," their report 

concludes. 

Former US Senator George Mitchell, 

a key figure in bringing about the Good 

Friday agreement, was among those to 

voice his approval of the development. 

During a recent visit to Ireland to 

receive the Tipperary International Peace 

Award, in recognition of his contribution 

to the Irish peace process, he described 

the latest moves as "great progress". 

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Irish Democrat August/September 2000 Page 3 

News 

Solidarity with besieged Northern communities 

DRUMCREE 2000 


MEMBERS OF the Connolly 

Association were among those from 

around the world who travelled to 

Portadown in July to show solidarity 

with the residents of the Garvaghy Road 

and to act as observers during the annual 

intensification of the ongoing 

Orange/loyalist siege. 

This year saw a worrying 

development with the arrival in 

Portadown of convicted UDA leader 

Johnny Adair and around 100 loyalist 

supporters carrying a banner 

proclaiming them to be members of the 

UFF's second battalion Shankill Road. 

In June, Belfast UFF members 

threatened to 'break' the terror group's 

ceasefire by starting to shoot Catholics in 

the north of the city 'to defend Protestant 

homes', claiming that they were under 

attack from nationalists. 

The group was forced to 'suspend' its 

Garvaghy Road mural 

k. • 

threat after the Housing Executive 

released figures showing that no 

Protestant families in the area had 

reported intimidation. Twenty-two 

Catholic families, however, had 

complained of sectarian intimidation and 

attacks and had been forced to flee their 

homes. 

Adair played a prominent role in this 

year's sectarian jamboree at Portadown 

where it is clear that his group maintains 

close contacts with the LVF. 

Sinn F6ln gains council 

seats north and south 

COUNCIL 

VOTES 


A STRING of local council successes 

are providing growing evidence that a 

combination of Sinn Fein's activism and 

strong backing of the Good Friday 

agreement is paying dividends, north and 

south of the border. 

In early June, councillor Cathal 

Crumley became the first Sinn Fein 

mayor of any Irish city — Derry -— since 

the election of Terence MacSwiney in 

Cork in 1920. However, an attempt to 

repeat the victory in Belfast, where Sinn 

Fein is the largest political party, was 

foiled when UUP councillors voted for 

DUP 'No man' Sammy Wilson in 

preference to Alex Maskey. 

Despite this setback, the events in 

Arson attacks 

THE CATHOLIC church of Harryville 

in Ballymena, for many months the 

focus of a sectarian picket, is the latest to 

fall victim to loyalist arsonists. 

In recent months churches and 

schools throughout the north have been 

subjected to sectarian arson attacks. A 

significant rise in incidents involving 

sectarian intimidation and attacks 

against nationalists, particularly in parts 

of north Belfast, has resulted in a steady 

stream of families being forced to flee 

their homes. 

Monitoring conducted by the Derrybased 

Pat Finucane Centre has recorded 

details of thousands of sectarian attacks 

involving bombs, guns, arson and 

beatings by loyalist gangs in recent 

years. The PFC latest monthly 

IN 

report 

runs to eight pages and is currently being 

updated weekly due the the volume of 

incidents. For full details visit the PFC 

website: www.serve.co/pfc/ 

Bloody Sunday 

"NOT SO much an opening as a 

beginning of the search for the truth of 

what happened." That was how British 

QC Christopher Clarke described his 

marathon presentation which concluded 

the first phase of the new Bloody Sunday 

inquiry. 

His review of the mass of evidence 

Derry and elsewhere, particularly south 

of the border, will be seen as a significant 

advances accruing from republicans' 

strong commitment to the political 

process. 

At the beginning of July Sinn F6iners 

weic elected as the mayor of Sligo, and 

as chairs of Leitrim and Monaghan 

county councils. Sean MacManus' 

election as mayor of Sligo is the first 

time that the party has held the position 

of mayor anywhere in the 26 counties 

since 1967. 

• Former Connolly Association member 

and longstanding supporter of the Irish 

Democrat Stephen Huggett was recently 

elected as a local councillor for Sinn 

Fein in Fermanagh. Huggett increased 

the party's vote by 60 per cent. With six 

councillors Sinn F6in is now the largest 

political party on the council. 

BRIEF 

already collected lasted 42 days — the 

longest opening statement by counsel in 

British legal history. 

The inquiry will now adjourn until 4 

September when it reconvenes to begin 

hearing oral evidence by witnesses to the 

events of 30 January 1972. 

Full details of the proceedings can be 

found on the official Bloody Sunday 

inquiry website at www.bloody-sundayinquiry.org.uk 

RUC complaints 

THE LATEST annual report of the Police 

Authority of Northern Ireland (PANI) 

reveals that 4,222 complaints were 

lodged against the six-county police 

force during 1998/99 — a drop of 24 per 

cent on the previous years' figures. 

Complaints included 1,778 for 

assault, 508 for neglect of duty and 498 

for "oppressive conduct and 

harassment". A further 646 complaints 

were lodged for what is disingenuously 

described in the report as "incivility" — 

a handy disguise for what, in the 

majority of cases, would be described by 

complainants as sectarian abuse. 

Despite the drop in the number of 

complaints, the report also reveals that 

the level of compensation paid out for 

police misconduct continues to soar. In 

1998/99 this rose to a staggering 

£2,423,000 — £1,286,000 of which was 

paid out in 178 out-of-court settlements. 

... • l. -'ixiS&fM 

Adair was present when UFF men 

fired shots into the air in the Brownstown 

estate after reading a short statement 

proclaiming that murdered LVF leader 

Billy Wright's death had not been in 

vain. 

The official CA delegation also 

travelled to Newry to lay a wreath at the 

grave of Irish lawyer, journalists and 

patriot John Mitchel which is located in 

the burial ground of the local nonsubscribing 

Presbyterian church. 

Mitchell, a Unitarian, was 

transported to Bermuda and then Van 

Diemah's Land (Tasmania) following 

the Young Irelander rebellion of 1848 

He eventually escaped to America and 

later returned to Ireland where he was 

elected MP for Tipperary. 

Following a meeting with Reverend 

Hutton, minister of the non-subscribing 

Presbyterian church in Newry, CA 

^ general secretary Jim Redmond praised 

the minister for meeting the group and 

paid tribute to the democratic and radical 

Presbyterian tradition that has 

contributed strongly to the development 

of Irish republicanism. 

"By focusing on he life and times of 

John Mitchel and the contribution he 

made to Ireland's struggle for freedom 

the Connolly Association's visit would 

assist in the development of constructive 

cross-community contacts," he said. 

During their visit to Newry the CA 

delegation also met with district 

councillors and joined local republicans 

for an hour-long vigil in support of the 

Garvaghy Road residents (see pic page 1). 

No trial for Rdlsfin 

THE CROWN Prosecution Service has 

ruled that Roisfn McAliskey, pictured, 

should not face trial in Britain in 

connection with an 1996 IRA mortar 

attack on a British army barracks in 

Osnabriik, Germany, due to lack of 

evidence. 

Two years ago Home Secretary Jack 

Straw ruled that Roisi'n McAliskey had 

been too ill to be extradited to Germany 

for questioning following a massive 

public campaign supported by leading 

human rights organisations in Britain 

and Ireland. 

Spotlight on the human 

rights of children 

HUMAN 

RIGHTS 


A NEW film focusing on children's 

rights in Britain received it's premier in 

Sheffield at the beginning of July as part 

of the city's month-long children's 

festival. 

Children's Rights, the work of 

Sheffield filmmaker Sandra Thomas, 

includes contributions from a number of 

the city's Irish children, members of the 

Irish survivors of child abuse group and 

Gerry Kelly of the Robert Hamill 

Campaign, who is currently studying at 

Sheffield University. 

The film aims to highlight the UN 

Charter on Children's Rights and 

Britain's incorporation of the European 

Amnesty inquiry call 

ROSEMARY 

NELSON 


HUMAN RIGHTS group Amnesty 

International has added its voice to calls 

for an independent inquiry into the 

circumstances surrounding the murder 

by loyalists last March of solicitor 

Rosemary Nelson. 

Amnesty has expressed particular 

concern over the police investigation 

team which it believes was not 

'sufficiently independent 1 from the RUC. 

In calling for a new investigation to 

be conducted by an outside police force 

the group has added its voice to those of 

legal and human-rights organisations 

including Human Rights Watch, the 

Charter on Human Rights into the soonto-be-implemented 

Human Rights Act. 

In the film Gerry Kelly, who is from 

Portadown, is seen speaking to groups of 

schoolchildren about his experience of 

growing up in the six counties, what 

happened to Robert Hamill and 

Rosemary Nelson and continuing events 

around the Garvaghy Road. 

"When Robert Hamill died he left 

three children behind. Although they did 

not suffer physically, his death is 

something that will affect them for the 

rest of their lives. 

Their human rights were adversely 

affected through the loss of their father," 

he explained. 

The makers of the film are hoping 

that the film will eventually be shown 

around the country. 

Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, 

the Committee on the Administration of 

Justice, British/Irish Rights Watch, the 

National Association of Criminal 

Defence Lawyers and the Irish Council 

for Civil Liberties. 

Tackling Ireland's 

housing crisis 

Dublin 

correspondent 

Anthony 

Coughlan argues 

that Ireland 

needs an end to 

the rampant 

profiteering 

from the sale of 

housing land 

SOARING HOUSE prices are among 

the biggest obstacles to people returning 

to live in Ireland to take up the jobs that 

now exist with the economic boom. The 

jobs are there, but people cannot afford 

to buy a house or pay high rents. 

Average Irish house prices have 

doubled in the past four years. Modest 

three-bedroom 'semis' on the outer 

fringe of Dublin, miles from people's 

workplaces, are now selling for 

£130,000. 

Until the early 1990s a skilled worker 

or person on a lower-middle class 

income could expect to be able to meet 

mortgage payments out of a weekly 

wage. But now two incomes are needed 

to pay a mortgage. This compels couples 

to postpone having children for years, 

and when they do start a family they will 

probably have one child rather than two 

and two rather than three. Trends bound 

to affect the next generation. 

Increasing the supply of land is the 

only speedy way to bring down house 

prices. Depending on the site, the price 

of a house is typically made up from 

one-third to one-half of the land it is built 

on. Increasing the supply of building 

land is therefore essential. American 

writer Mark Twain once said: 'Buy land; 

they've stopped making it!' 

Land values increase because of the 

accident of proximity to cities, or 

because of zoning decisions which 

switch it from agriculture or amenity use 

to building purposes, without any 

investment or effort by owners. Why 

should owners then be able to pocket this 

rise in value? 

Back in 1973 the Kenny Report on 

Building Land proposed that Irish public 

authorities should be able to buy land for 

housing, at use value plus a fraction — 

the latter as a gesture to land owners. 

Nothing was done. 

Referendum 

Though Kenny was a judge, people said 

such a step would raise constitutional 

problems over property rights. But the 

Irish constitution says the common good 

should override private interest and there 

is no doubt that the public would endorse 

a constitutional amendment by 

referendum if needed, to enable land for 

housing to be acquired at reasonable 

prices. 

The root of the problem is that Fianna 

Fail and Fine Gael are in hock to the 

building industry. Property developers in 

cahoots with corrupt councillors have 

made fortunes from the present system. 

Landholders naturally love anything that 

raises land prices. The last thing they 

want is a radical move to tackle these, 

and indirectly cut housing costs. 

Any political party whose genuine 

objective is to improve the lot of the 

overwhelming majority of Irish citizens, 

at the expense of greedy landowners and 

the corrupt politicians who compliance 

has been bought with bribes, clearly has 

an opportunity here. The Republic's 

harassed house purchasers and tenants 

would give it resounding support, were it 

to advocate a constitutional amendment 

to enable local authorities acquire 

building land at agricultural value in the 

interests of the common good.

Page 4 Irish Democrat August/September 2000 


News/analysis 

NETSURFING 

by Bookmarker 

BEING AWARE that more and more 

readers arc getting hixiked up to the 

internet, we kick off what we hope will 

become a regular feature providing 

details of some of the most interesting, 

useful and. occasionally, entertaining 

websites around. 

While aiming to expand readers' 

knowledge, and even entertain, we hope 

that you'll take the opportunity to 

support the various campaigns 

highlighted where appropriate. Get 

surfing, get knowledgeable and get 

active. 

Pat Finucane Centre — Regular 

Democrat readers w ill have seen website 

of the Derry-based Put Finucane Centre 

mentioned on numerous occasions. The 

centre is concerned w ith a broad range of 

human-rights issues including loyalist 

attacks, police collusion and Bk>ody 

Sunday This site has excellent links. 

www.serve.co/pfc/ 

Bloody Sunday Inquiry — For details of 

the full inquiry proceedings the official 

inquiry website at www.bloody-sundavinquiry.org.uk 

is invaluable. 

Robert Hamill Campaign — The 

London committee of the campaign has 

a new website with up-to-date campaign 

info as well as background details, 

u Mw.biuwiy.net/hamill/news.html 

Seamus Ludlow — The family of 

murdered Dundalk forestry worker, 

Seamus Ludlow, now have an excellent 

new website at www.adon89.care4free/ 

chronologv.htm 

Seamus was kidnapped and 

murdered in 1976 by the loyalist Red 

Hand Commandos. At least one gang 

member was also a member of the 

locally-recruited Ulster Defence 

Regiment of the British Army. The 

Ludlow family are pressing for an 

inquiry into the murder. 

James Connolly Society — Although 

it's not clear as to which political group, 

if any. the James Connolly Society of 

Canada and the United States is attached 

to they run a fine website, which 

includes all of Connolly's major works. 

wwwl4.pair.com/jcs/ 

Garvaghy Road Residents — You can 

support the embattled residents of 

Garvaghy Road and get up-to-date 

information about the latest developments 

at www.garvaghyroad.org 

Anglo-Irish politics — Many of the 

above sites and lots more can be found 

on the highly-recommended Anglo-Irish 

Political Links website run by Steve 

Jones of Friends of Ireland. In addition to 

articles by the author links include 

political parties, government 

departments and media outlets 

throughout Britain and Ireland 

(including Northern Ireland Assembly). 

www.users.zetnet.co.uk/anglojrish 

_politics 

Or No's 'religious institute' — One 

that's definitely more for entertainment 

and outrage than enlightenment, the 

website of the European Institute of 

Protestant Studies features the Rev. Ian 

Paisley in all his barking, bigoted glory. 

Check out the audio sermons for full 

effect: www.ianpaisley.org 

Celtic music on the internet — 

Provides links to a wide range of Celtic 

music sites with into about festivals, 

magazines, tunes, instruments and 

discussion groups, www.ceolas.org/ref 

/Internet Sources.html 

Union welcomes devolution return 

TRADE UNIONS 


BRITAIN'S LARGEST trade union. 

UNISON. recently renewed its 

commitment to supporting the Irish 

peace process. Delegates attending the 

union's annual conference held in 

Bournemouth endorsed a statement from 

the national executive welcoming the 

return of devolved government and 

pledging to support members in their 

ongoing work to secure the 

implementation of the Good Friday 

agreement. 

"Underpinning the return to devolved 

government is the new statutory duty to 

w 

*w •! i W S S .a 

promote equality of opportunity, long 

campaigned for by UNISON and 

others." This new legal requirement will 

require a "redistribution of decision 

making in which civil society plays a 

new and exciting role at all levels of 

government and public-sector decision 

making," the union insists. 

However, it warns that "decisionmakers 

opposed to change are resistant 

to a new, inclusive decision-making 

model". 

In relation to the Police Bill currently 

going through parliament the statement 

makes clear that the UNISON will 

continue "to support amendments aimed 

at securing proper accountability and 

international human rights standards". 

LEVELLERS' DAY: CA members Danny Burke and Alex Southern lead the 

Association's contingent at the recent Levellers' Day in Burford, Oxfordshire 

Delay condemned 

THE PARENTS of murdered Belfast 

teenager Peter McBride have welcomed 

comments made by the Independent 

Assessor on Military Complaints 

condemning the delay by an Army board 

in making a decision on the future of the 

two guardsmen convicted of the 1992 

murder. 

In his annual report. Independent 

Assessor Jim McDonald criticised the 

delay and voiced the concerns of many 

"across the community" at the original 

Ministry of Defence decision to retain 

the two soldiers despite their murder 

convictions. 

No action over pic 

BRITISH ARMED forces minister John 

Spellar has confirmed in a statement to 

the House of Commons that no 

disciplinary action will be taken against 

the Royal Irish Regiment officer who 

supervised a regimental photograph in 

which his Company displayed an 

Orange Order banner. 

The photograph of the 8th battalion 

of the RIR, a copy of which was 

Squeezing us dry 

IN JUSTICE, if there were justice, 

Britain owes millions of pounds in 

reparations to the Irish. The Irish 

government should be demanding return 

of the unjust annuities which were paid 

by the Irish to the very people who had 

planned an ongoing final solution to the 

lives of the natives of Ireland. 

During the thirties Ireland paid £350 

million in punitive taxes to Britain. On 

top of that, farmers were forced to pay 

annuities set at £5 million a year. All 

during those years there was something 

like a second famine. 

There were families dying of hunger 

and tuberculosis, ali in the process of 

paying these ruinous and insupportable 

exactions. 

All this robbery and blackmail was 

insufficient to satisfy the unbounded 

greed of Britain. She went on to declare 

economic war on Ireland's farmers, 

refusing them access to British markets. 

subsequently passed on to the 

Anderstown News, was taken o, 12 July 

last year, immediately after the army had 

been deployed at Drumcree. 

The incident indicates that 

sectarianism remains a problem in the 

regiment, which now incorporates the 

sectarian Ulster Defence Regiment, and 

raises serious questions about the 

attitude of the RIR to the Drumcree 

siege. 

"I am totally dissatisfied with the 

answers given in this matter," 

commented Labour MP Kevin 

McNamara. "The behaviour of the 

soldiers was contemptible and 

demonstrates the regiment is tainted with 

sectarianism." 

Inquiry call backed 

THE IRISH government has given its 

full backing to calls for an independent 

inquiry into the death of Portadown man 

Robert Hamill. 

The Taoiseach held a meeting with 

Hamill family members, the family's 

solicitor, Barra McGrory, and Martin 

O'Brien of the Committee on the 

Administration of Justice in early June. 

having been reduced to total destitution 

the Irish had to emigrate and those who 

stayed at home had to suffer the frightful 

humiliation of receiving dole money and 

free beef to keep them alive. 

This does not give the full extent of 

the exploitation of the Irish in the past 

century. Irish labourers built Britain's 

infrastructure and housing after the war 

and now they are being put out of the 

very buildings they have put up. 

The (Islington) Irish Centre provides 

welfare not only for Irish people but for 

other ethnic groups. Social services will 

now have to pick up the tab and the local 

council will be responsible for welfare 

services, at their own expense. 

NEWS IN BRIEF 

M McGuinn, 

London N8 

Submarine tale surfaces 

at Cobh heritage centre 

NAVAL HISTORY 

by Jim Savage in Cork 

ANYONE PLANNING a visit to Cork 

this summer should include a visit to 

fascinating exhibition at the Cobh 

heritage centre dealing with the life of 

Liscannor-born inventor John Philip 

Holland, inventor of the submarine and 

republican. 

Nicknamed the 'Fenian Ram' by the 

New York Sun because the initial project 

had been partly funded with money from 

the Fenians' 'skirmishing' fund, 

Holland's first 31-foot diving boat was 

launched in New in 1881. 

John Devoy is known to have secured 

around £60,000 from Clan na Gael for 

the project while there is evidence to 

suggest that Holland, a committed 

republican, envisioned his submarine 

being used to attack the British Navy. 

Holland eventually formed a 

company to develop his invention and 

through his links with the US Navy 

secured a contract to build them a 

submarine in 1895, at a cost of $ 150,000. 

"Our exhibition includes a lot of 

photographs and literature about Holland 

as well as the history of the submarine's 

"Very serious and unanswered questions 

have been raised about the role of 

individual police officers at the time of 

the attack and the detailed reports we 

have received today add to our concerns 

in this regard", he said in a statement 

released afterwards. 

"The Robert Hamill case is a matter 

of urgent public interest. The issues of 

concern in this case must be 

satisfactorily addressed in a manner 

which will command the confidence of 

the community," he added. 

DUP motion fails 

AN ATTEMPT, at the beginning of July, 

by the Democratic Unionist Party to 

remove Sinn Fein's two ministers 

flopped after the party failed to win the 

support of 60 per cent of assembly 

unionists. 

The motion to remove education 

minister Martin McGuinness and health 

minister Bairbre de Brun from office 

was, however, supported by four Ulster 

Unionist assembly members, Derek 

Hussey, Pauline Armitage, Peter Weir 

and Roy Beggs jnr. The remaining 

members of the UUP group abstained. 

Letters to the Editor 

Write to: The Editor, Irish Democrat, c/o 244 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8JR 

or email at: democrat@hardgran.demon.co.uk 

Pea Stalks 

WE'VE ALL heard of 'Jack and the 

Beanstalk' (and John Stalker's a name 

we know well) but Union Jack and the 

Pea Stalk, that will mean a sure highjack 

to Hell. 

The subject is of course the whole 

ghastly misreporting of the political 

situation re the 'Peace Talks' in Northern 

Ireland. 

How the unionists have highjacked 

and altered the Good Friday Agreement 

making phoney 'deadlines' while every 

BBC news report speaks as though the 

IRA were the only ones with arms — no 

mention of the four-year ceasefire or of 

the UVF, LVF, UDA, UFF, etc still 

killing and bombing Catholic homes and 

design," said Cobh Heritage Centre 

spokesperson Paddy Maher. Among the 

exhibits are a torpedo donated by the 

Naval Service and a video about 

Holland's life made in the US in the 

1960s, he explained. 

0 Local councillors in Cork were among 

those to recently express fury over the 

city's hosting of a touring Vietnam war 

memorial. 

The 'Wall That Heals' exhibition, a 

half-scale replica of the Washington wall 

listing the names of 58,214 Americans 

killed during the 10,000-day war, was 

officially opened at Collins Barracks, 

Cork. The memorial also went on to be 

displayed at Dublin Castle, the National 

University of Ireland and Queen's 

University, Belfast. 

During a council debate, councillor 

Dan Boyle said that it was highly 

inappropriate that the city should 

welcome an event which did not honour 

the dead of both sides in the historic 

conflict. 

The city's hosting of the memorial 

was also opposed by councillor John 

Kelleher who insisted that the war 

represented one of the ugliest shows of 

force by a superpower against a Third 

World country. 

During debate, First Minister David 

Trimble accused the DUP's two 

minister's of "rank hypocrisy", 

reminding the party's two ministers, 

Peter Robinson and Nigel Dodds, that 

they were part of the government along 

with Sinn Fein. 

After their defeat, the DUP 

announced that it would 'rotate' its 

ministerial posts at the end of July as part 

of its ongoing attempts to disrupt the 

new assembly. 

Maze set to empty 

THE REMAINING prisoners due for 

release under the terms of the Good 

Friday agreement should leave the Maze 

prison at the end of July. Republicans 

Sean Kelly, John McArdle, Bernard 

McGinn and Michael Caraher and 

loyalist Michael Stone will be among the 

last batch of prisoners released before 

the jail's expected closure on July 28. 

Fifteen further prisoners, including 

INLA members responsible for the 

murder of LVF leader Billy Wright, who 

were convicted of offences outside the 

timesacle set out in the agreement will 

not qualify for release in July. 

schools, fifteen churches burnt, etc. 

This misreporting and injustice 

makes me feel I'm going round the bend. 

Y Boydell 

Essex 

DUE TO a ^lib-editing error the 

penultimate paragraph of'|fctter 

Latham's letter in thf' lastPfuue 

(English identity, P5) didn't make 

sense. It should have read: *t 

"It is probably more important to 

develop an understanding of 

Englishnest in a cultural se«|Wli» 

anything elttrThis U fr viMldpt 

News feature 

A fresh look at 

the Casement 

legacy 

Historian Angus Mitchell 

talks to the Irish Democrat 

about the recent Casement 

symposium in Dublin (see 

Irish Democrat June/July 

2000), recent research and 

the prospects for ending 

the controversy over the 

'Black' and 'White' 

diaries once and for all 

ID: The recent Royal Irish Academy 

symposium highlighted the interest and 

controversy which continues to 

surround the life and work of Roger 

Casement. How did the event come 

about and what involvement has there 

been from the current Irish government? 

AM: There has been a vast release of 

Casement archive material in both 

England and Ireland during the last six 

years. This includes the release of the socalled 

Black Diaries at the Public 

Records Office in 1994, almost 200 

Home Office files in 1995; release of the 

MI5 — KV2 files in 1999 and the 

release, later this year, of surviving 

Special Branch Files (MEPO 2). 

Simultaneously, the National Archive 

of Ireland has released the bulk of 

Taoiseach Files, beginning with those 

classed as 'Alleged Casement Diaries' 

and opened by Michael Collins in 1922, 

continuing through to the time of 

Casement's repatriation in 1965 when the 

matter of the Black Diaries was officially 

dropped in Ireland. This huge release of 

material forces a complete 'revision' of 

traditional views on Casement. 

An Taoiseach in his Arbour Hill 

address in April 1999 requested the 

Royal Irish Academy to look into the 

whole matter of the diaries and open up 

a debate among scholars to try to rescue 

Casement from the periphery of Irish 

and World history. 

The Black Diaries controversy has 

succeeded in writing Casement out of 

history and obscuring his true stature 

behind a cloud of tedious sexual 

speculation. The government felt that, 

now with most documentation the public 

domain, and with homosexuality now 

decriminalised and a more tolerant 

attitude towards sexual choice in Ireland 

it was time to take a new look at 

Casement's significance. 

ID: Is there anything in recent research 

or the release of official government 

papers which is particularly significant 

in terms of adding new insights into 

Casement's work? 

AM: One of the contributors at the 

symposium, Dr Jules Marchal, a former 

Belgian diplomat in the Congo, made the 

valuable point that for much of the last 

century 

there was in 

Afro-Belgian 

history a "Morel- 

Casement myth". He 

stated that "Casement 

joined Morel in the Belgian history 

books and collective memory as a great 

villain and abject slanderer." 

Certainly, in Belgium, the alleged 

diaries became one way this myth was 

supported. In recent years a new 

generation of Belgian historians has 

challenged this myth and, Dr Marchal 

continued, "are convincing the public 

gradually of their absolute honesty and 

King Leopold's villainy." 

Casement should 

open Irish eyes to 

a whole new 

dimension of Irish 

and world history 

Casement's significance in 1916 has 

been completely misunderstood, partly 

as a result of the confusion in Kerry, but 

mainly because the English have always 

known more about Casement than the 

Irish. The release of the RIC Intelligence 

File (PRO CO 904/195), for instance, 

shows that Casement, after the founding 

of the Volunteers, led the first recruiting 

drives across Ireland. He remained the 

leaders' leader until his departure for 

America in June 1914. 

Although a shadowy figure to many 

rank and file volunteers he attained 

almost a mystical status to other 

revolutionaries such as Pearse, MacNeill, 

Markiewicz, MacSwiney, Ashe, de 

Valera, Blythe, Hobson and many others. 

Certainly, in the mind of British 

Intelligence, he was the most dangerous 

revolutionary involved in the rising, 

because he was 'one of us' — part of the 

inner circle of the imperial ruling class. 

ID: Research 

increasingly points 

to the involvement of 

British intelligence in the 

alleged forgery of thye 'Black Diaries'. 

What is your assessment of this research 

and the likelihood of the British 

government releasing all the relevant 

documents for public scrutiny? 

AM: Part of the problem I have faced in 

trying to put forward my argument is the 

resistance I have received from those 

academics who had been involved with 

Casement before I arrived on the scene. 

In the early '90s Casement had been 

forgotten by historians and had been 

claimed by academics who were either 

unable to face up to the figure revealed 

by those documents, or were only 

interested in Casement's sexuality. When 

traditional views are challenged some 

academics can appear as free-thinking as 

Spanish Inquisitors. 

When dealing with British 

Intelligence or with the Irish Volunteer 

movement in its various incarnations, for 

much of the time one is dealing in the 

dark. Both organisations are obscured by 

a 'culture of secrecy'. I think a number 

of aspects of British Intelligence work in 

Ireland should be more closely analysed 

especially figures like the First World 

War Secret Service chiefs, Admiral Sir 

Reginald Hall and Sir Basil Thomson. 

Britain has not always been exemplary in 

policing the truth in the twentieth 

century, especially where the Secret 

Services were involved. 

After the release of the Metropolitan 

Police Files on Casement later this year 

there only remain the MI6 — SIS files 

and 13 remaining KV-2 files. The ghost 

will continue beating at the door until all 

documentation is released. 

ID: Plans are now underway to subject 

some of the disputed material to forensic 

testing. When is this likely to happen and 

will it prove conclusively whether the 

diaries are genuine or forged? 

The appliance of science to the 

diaries is a complex one. The three tests 

so far carried out by the British Home 

Office are completely superficial and 

unsatisfactory and may be discredited by 

anyone seeking an independent view. So 

any forensic testing must begin from 

scratch. 

The basic tests must be carried out 

initially on paper and ink comparisons 

and a thorough examination of the 

physical nature of the documents and the 

writing. There is also room for linguistic 

finger-printing and word frequency 

analysis and also talk of DNA analysis if 

a piece of his hair or some dried saliva 

can be identified. 

The Office of the Taoiseach will, I 

believe, oversee this work, through the 

Royal Irish Academy. I would hope it 

will be conclusive to those whose minds 

are open to the matter. 

ID: How significant is Casement's 

sexuality in understanding the man and 

his actions and to what extent has this 

aspect of the controversy affected the 

fight for the truth about Casement? 

AM: For me the issue of Casement's 

sexuality is completely irrelevant. What 

interests me is: are the diaries forged and 

how has the whole sexual myth about 

Casement been constructed and for what 

purpose? 

People should understand that the 

majority of Black Diary material deals 

with Casement's voyages up the Congo 

in 1903 and, more specifically, up the 

Amazon in 1910 and 1911. As historical 

documents their authenticity stands or 

falls in respect to those moments of his 

life. They really have nothing to do with 

his Irish activities. 

I came to doubt the authenticity of 

the diaries because they are, on several 

levels in conflict with the narrative of his 

human rights campaign on the Amazon 

from 1910-13 told through other sources, 

official and otherwise. 

Certainly the sexual confusion 

surrounding his reputation has made him 

into the most abused figure in Anglo- 

Irish history. In recent times the 

way he has been claimed by 

some areas of the Irish gay 

community in both Ireland and 

the US is as emotionally 

charged as the way some 

nationalists condemn the 

authenticity of the diaries for 

no reason but their own 

homophobia. 

Sex was an 

extremely confused 

matter in 1916. It 

still is. Read Paul 

Fussell's The 

Great War and 

M o d e r n 

Memory or 

Philip Hoare's 

Wilde's Last 

Stand to 

understand the 

b i z a r r e 

relationship 

between sex, 

intelligence, 

conspiracy and 

war at the 

moment when 

the diaries were 

first rumoured. 

The diaries rose out of 

the chaos of the summer 

of 1916. 

If Casement has 

helped the cause of 

sexual freedom in 

England, Ireland and 

elsewhere that's great, 

but the gay community 

should understand that 

their Casement is a figure 

of myth and literary 

fantasy not of history. I don't begrudge 

them that, I just feel that they should 

know and a definition be made. 

A lot of gay commentators and 

writers, not directly involved in Anglo- 

Irish frictions, have instinctively kept 

clear of the diaries, because they know 

they don't ring true. In my reading of 

them I see them as essentially 

homophobic documents and other freeminded 

scholars such as Dr Eoin Dudley 

Edwards support me in that view. 

Certainly many people who have and 

who still defend Casement are 

homophobic and my difficulties in 

working with Roger Sawyer arose from 

my concerns over his views on 

homosexuality. I have a similar problem 

with some of the gay activists who allow 

their politics to cloud the issue and a 

number of academics who are too 

constricted by the narrow margins of 

their own discipline. 

It is a lot easier to believe the diaries 

aren't forged than to understand how and 

why they were. 

ID: Presuming the forgery issue is 

resolved in the near future, what do you 

see as the main avenues for further 

research into Casement's life and work ? 

AM: Casement should open Irish eyes to 

a whole new dimension of Irish and 

world history. Dr Martin Mansergh's 

comment that 'the more idealistic side of 

Irish Foreign Policy at its best, the 

engagement in East Timor, Sean 

MacBride's engagement as UN High 

Commissioner for Namibia, the strong 

Irish support for the anti-apartheid 

movement and Mary Robinson's taking 

on the challenge of UN Human Rights 

Commissioner follows in a straight line 

from Casement'. 

He belongs most obviously in the 

post-colonial debate, but equally he is an 

immense figure in both African and 

Amazon history. Casement studies will 

keep Irish students busy and interested for 

many years. The sexual dimension is also 

interesting and I'm sure will keep 

burning. As a figure I have seen Casement 

compared to Jonathan Swift, Lord 

Edward Fitzgerald Nelson Mandela, 

Antoinio Vieira, and even Che 

Guevara. 

ID: What are you working on 

now? Are you planning to publish 

any further detailed studies in the 

near future? 

AM: I am currently 

working on a companion 

volume of documents with 

respect to 1911 which I 

hope will form a 

documentary basis from 

where informed 

analysis of the diaries 

can begin. This I hope 

will be published 

through the Irish 

Manuscripts 

Commission, which 

was set up by 

Casement's great 

colleague, the Irish 

scholar-revolutionary, 

Eoin MacNeill. 

For me Casement is a 

reconciling figure. He 

transcends political and 

sectarian squabbling and 

belongs to the wider Irish 

community. If his message 

is better understood and his 

actions on behalf of 

humanity are appreciated 

then a battle in the cause of 

truth will have been won. 

Angus Mitchell is the 

editor of The Amazon 

Journal of Roger Casement 

(Anaconda, 1998). 

•

Page ft Irish Democrat August/September 2000 


Connolly column 

Published in The 

on 30 January 1915 

Connolly sets out the 

Worker 

socialist attitude to war 

and castigates the 

hypocrisy of the British 

ruling class in 

highlighting the 

'atrocities' of their 

German enemy 

Can warfare be civilised? 

THE PROGRESS of the great war and the many extraordinary developments 

accompanying it are rapidly tending to bring home to the minds of the general public 

the truth of the s


Book reviews 

A determined effort to end British rule 

David Granville reviews The Easter 

Rising In Michael Foy arui Brian 

Hart,in. Sutton Publishing, £19.99 hhk 

im/The 1916 Proclamation by 

John O 'Connor. Anvil Books £5.99 pbk 

PESPITE CONTINUING unease in 

official quarters concerning the legacy of 

the Easter rebellion of 1916. a steady 

stream of new books dealing with this 

historic challenge to British imperial rule 

in Ireland make their way into our 

bookshops. Suprisingly though, it has 

been a generation since there has been a 

'new' full account of the rising. 

Michael Foy and Brian Barton have 

been able to add significantly to Max 

Caulfield's detailed account originally 

published in 1963 and rev ised in 1995 as 

a result of gaining access to a range of 

previously unused primary sources, 

including the private papers of Sir John 

Maxwell and recently-released 

transcripts of the courts martial trials of 

the executed rebel leaders. 

Their account of events at each of the 

rebel garrisons is exceptionally detailed, 

it is the authors' conclusions regarding 

the motives of the rebellion leaders and 

the response of both the Dublin people 

which is of particular interest. 

Writing in the opening chapter of the 

book dealing with the planning of the 

rebellion, the authors directly challenge 

the notion of a 'blood sacrifice'— a 

widely accepted interpretation in many 

From pitchfork 

to stethoscope 

Rutin O 'Donnell reviews The Story 

Of a Toiler's Life by James Mullin, 

University College Dublin, £13.95 pbk 

FIRST PUBLISHED in 1921. a year 

after the death of its author, Mullin's 

autobiography, which is far more 

interesting book than its dreary title 

suggests, provides glimpses of 19th 

century Ireland from the rare perspective 

of Ulster's rural underclass. 

Tyrone's poor abounded when 

Mullin was born in the famine year of 

1846 but his subsequent social progress 

from an exploited, semi-literate and 

largely self-taught child labourer in 

Cookstown to a successful doctor in 

Cardiff was unique. 

True to the egalitarian ideals of his 

1 United Irish ancestors, Mullin refused to 

accept the sectarian divisions imposed 

on Tyrone from the 1780s and moved 

promiscuously through every artificial 

social boundary he encountered.This 

detachment seemingly won him more 

allies than enemies and was some feat 

given that his Dungannon uncle had 

taken an axe to an offending Oi angeman 

with fatal effect. 

Mullin is nothing if not self-effacing 

The diaspora factor 

Peter Berresford Ellis reviews The 

Wandering Irish In Europe: 

their influence from the Dark 

Ages to modern times by 

Matthew J. Culligan and Peter Cherici, 

Constable. 

£8.99pbk 

I HAVE to confess to being disappointed 

in this txx>k. It is rather like Thomas 

Cahill's How the Irish Saved 

Civilisation; there is nothing new but 

simply a catchy presentation that will 

appeal to . wide readership, especially 

those who have never considered the 

m 

Michucl (oy and Biiun Bailon 

political and academic quarters. 

They argue convincingly that 

although some IRB Military Council 

leaders, especially Pearse, Plunkett and 

McDonagh, came to see the rebellion as 

an 'heroic and doomed protest', Clarke 

and McDermott, the two senior directors 

of the IRB, were "able to contain the 

restless and somewhat excitable energies 

of their subordinates and focus them on 

this world rather than the next". 

In support they argue that Ireland 

Report submitted to the German military 

general staff by Casement and Plunkett 

in 1915 "indisputably reveals the 

Military Council's plans as optimistic, 

coherent in relation to land warfare and 

and his accounts of the many trials faced 

by mid-Ulster's poor are reminiscent of 

Frank McCourt at his best. Guided by an 

exceptionally strong willed mother, 

Mullin eked his way in the face of 

tremendous odds into Queen's College 

Galway where he gained the means to 

practise medicine in Britain from 1880. 

One of the most arresting parts of the 

txxik describes his time as a prominent 

Fenian activist in Tyrone yet raises more 

questions than it answers. This may owe 

something to his later and far more 

moderate public political profile as the 

anti-Pamellite leader of Cardiff's United 

Irish League. 

Writing not long after the twin 

shocks of the Great War and 1916 rising, 

and presumably mindful of the propriety 

of a British-based author endorsing 

militant Irish nationalism, he claimed to 

disapprove of O'Donovan Rossa and 

Padraig Pearse with whom he had shared 

platforms not long before. 

While this distancing may well 

represent Mullin's genuine unease 

:, h 

the militants it must be weighed against 

his close friendship with Michael Davitt, 

support for the Land War, anticlericalism, 

republicanism and powerful 

sense of social justice. All are indicative 

of uncommon radicalism and are 

difficult to reconcile with Mullin's 

professed support for Irish Home Rule 

within the British Empire of the 1910s. 

Irish Diaspora and its impact before. 

On that level, full marks to Culligan 

and Cherici for at least drawing people's 

attention to the subject and, as such, it is 

a good introduction. 

This tells in general terms of the Irish 

religious wanderings, their foundations 

in Europe, and then the invasions of their 

own country which led to a major 

diaspora second only to the Jewish 

diaspora. 

For those who want a deeper reading, 

to know details of the various Irish 

brigades, the influence of those brigades 

and their commanders, for a history of 

the great chateaux of the 'wild geese', 

then we need to wait awhile for more 

detailed studies. 

directed to achieving a military victory 

by overwhelming the British forces...". 

The authors also dispute the widelyaccepted 

view that the reaction of 

Dubliners to the rebellion was one of 

universal hostility which was only 

transformed into support following the 

executions of the rebel leaders. 

While not disputing that the rebels 

were met with out-and-out hostility in 

some quarters, they argue that responses 

throughout the city were far from 

uniform and point out that previous 

studies have failed to take sufficient 

account of the routes to captivity taken 

by the captured rebels. 

It was hardly surprising, they 

suggest, that the rebels met with hostility 

in areas where Irish regiments of the 

British Army drew their recruits or 

where the population was dependent 

economically on the presence of the 

British military. 

However, there is equally clear 

evidence that the population in areas 

such as South Dublin Union and 

Marrowbone Lane, "were extremely 

friendly and supportive". 

Disappointingly, given the author's 

conclusions, they appear to have 

overlooked the important account of the 

rebellion provided by the Canadian 

journalist F.A. McKenzie (see Irish 

Democrat, February 1991). 

A strong supporter of the imperialist 

cause, his eyewitness account of the 

rebellion and the rebels' surrender, 

The 1916 Proclamation 

i 

originally published in London in 1916, 

nevertheless suggests that there was "a 

vast amount of sympathy for the rebels" 

in the poorer districts of the city. 

The book's one other area of 

potential controversy concerns the 

conduct of the rebel forces, specifically 

information gleaned from Public Record 

Office files suggesting that, whatever the 

orders of the Military Council, "many 

unarmed soldiers were shot on sight and 

wounded or killed". 

However the evidence appears to be 

contradicted by non other than the 

British Under Secretary, Nathan, who 

conceded that "many of the rebels 

behaved in a manner to which exception I 

would not have been taken had they been 

belligerents". 

Originally published by Anvil in 

1986, John O'Connor's fascinating and 

informative The 1916 Proclamation, 

gets a new lease of life and a slight 

revision in the light of information 

released by the Nation Archives of 

Ireland in 1991 and the publication of 

Kathleen Clarke's memoirs in the same 

year. 

This slender book, which deals 

primarily with the drafting and printing 

of the document, also included details 

of those killed during the rebellion, or 

who were executed afterwards, and the 

National Museum's 1916 roll of 

honour. 

Liam O'Briain and Michael J. 

Molloy were the two compositors at 

Liberty Hall to whom Connolly gave the 

text of the document to set for printing 

on Easter Sunday 1916. 

As a result of information provided 

by the two men in response to a 1953 

government questionnaire concerning 

the printing of the proclamation, 

O'Connor concludes that there is no 

proof that an original of the proclamation 

bearing the signatures of the seven 

signatories ever existed. 

He also concludes that the only 

document which could, in any way, be 

described as 'the original' was in fact a 

manuscript copy used by the printers and 

that this document neither included the 

signatures nor survived. 

Serving the British Crown 

Kuairi O Domhnaill reviews Soldier 

Of the Queen by Bernard 

O'Mahoney with Mick McGovern, 

Brandon/Mount Eagle, £14.99 hbk 

THIS IS the second book by the main 

author and much of it is taken up with his 

experience in Northern Ireland, where he 

served for just one 'tour'. 

His first book described his postmilitary 

experiences of violence, drugs 

and gang warfare. His collaborator 

helped "IRA supergrass Eamon Collins" 

with his autobiography. 

Here, their style is barrack-room 

truculent, unnecessarily laced with 

obscenities and descriptions of violence 

as self-gratification. 

The eponymous hero's drunken Irish 

father, possibly stigmatised by his 

illegitimacy, brutalised his family. 

JUST OVER 400 years after his death, 

historians have taken a renewed interest 

in the politician, parliamentarian and 

soldier at the heart of England's brief 

flirtation with republicanism, a man 

who's brutal subjugation of his enemies 

in Ireland have made him one of the 

most hated figures in Irish history. 

Oliver Cromwell, an 

Illustrated history by Helen Litton 

(Wolfhound Press, £7.99 pbk) offers a 

short, 'even-handed' overview of 

Cromwell's life which attempts to 

separate fact from myth. 

Inevitably superficial in its analysis, 

due to its small size, the book's 

accessible style, excellent illustrations 

and helpful bibliography nevertheless 

combine to make this an attractive 

starting point for the absolute novice. 

Personal Accounts from 

Northern Ireland's Troubles: 

public conflict, private loss by 

BERNARD 

O'MAHONEY 

with MICK McGOVfRN 

O'Mahoney junior seems to have 

difficulties with close relationships other 

than those with his mother and possibly 

Reviews in brief 

Marie Smyth and Marie-Therese Fay 

feds.) (Pluto Press, £10.99 pbk) provides 

a both a moving and depressing insight 

into the human cost of the violence that 

has marked the conflict in the North for 

the past 30 years. 

Based on in-depth interviews 

conducted by University of Ulster 

researchers as part of their study into the 

cost of the troubles, these accounts 

attempt to set down the personal and 

irretrievable loss experienced by people 

from various backgrounds as a result of 

the conflict. 

Those interviewed iclude members 

or relatives of those involved in the 

British security forces, though not the 

British Army, through to the to an ex- 

IRA hunger striker. 

Generally speaking though, these are 

not the voices of committed activists but 

the heartfelt and frequently tragic 

experiences of those who have been 

his brothers. He dismisses his infant son 

and his girlfriend of three years, in 20 

words. 

His romance with a UDR member 

fails because of her loyalist Protestant 

parents and his Irish Catholic roots. 

He embarked on a violent career 

early and expresses no concern for oftendefenceless 

victims. 

For three years, the British Army 

afforded him an income and, more 

importantly, a haven from legal 

retribution. 

If the tale is reliable, the British Army 

still fulfils its traditional role as a refuge 

for violent criminals and has little regard 

for the law, which it claims to uphold. 

For administrative convenience, it 

requires that wounded "paddies" are 

"killed outright". 

There may have been reasons for 

writing this book; it is difficult to find 

any good reason for reading it. 

scarred, both physically and emotionally, 

as a result of their experiences 

throughout this bitter conflict. 

For anyone who has had the 

memorable experience of visiting 

Newgrange in County Meath, 

Exploring Newgrange by Liam 

Mac Uistin (The O'Brien Press, £7.99 

hbk) will serve to set the experience in 

context. 

For those who haven't been it will 

certainly whet the appetite for a trip to 

Ireland's most famous Megalithic tomb. 

Newgrange is one of the world's 

oldest structures, considerably predating 

the Egyptian pyramids and the 

more famous Stonehenge. 

This interesting and well-illustrated 

little book explores the five millennia 

since its construction and examines those 

who built it, their reasons for doing so, 

the myths associated with the structure 

and its legacy. 


Book reviews 

'Soft' imperialism's seductive charms 

Joe Jamison reviews Aiding 

Democracy Abroad: the 

learning curve by Thomas 

Carothers Carnegie, Endowment for 

International Peace, $19.95 pbk (ISBN 

# 0-87003-169-4) 

FILMMAKER, HUMORIST and Hint, 

Michigan native-son Michael Moore 

takes a dim view of American 

democracy. So many elections in the US 

are uncontested, Moore notes, he has 

started to announce on his TV show, The 

Awful Truth, that he is running potted 

plants against unchallenged politicians. 

"If no human beings run, we're going for 

another species", he stated. 

This is the American democracy the 

US government wants to export. 

It was in the Irish Democrat that 

there first appeared a serious political 

analysis of the role of US-based National 

Endowment for Democracy and its 

party-political offshoot The National 

Democratic Institute for International 

Affairs. 

The NDI was offering 'training' to 

SDLP politicians and staff. This was 

back in the days when the imperial 

Williams recalled 

James Kirwan reviews Executed: 

Tom Williams and the IRA by 

Jim McVeigh, Beyond the Pale 

Publications, £7.99 pbk 

DRAWING UPON on reliable academic 

authorities and primary research, Jim 

McVeigh has performed an essential 

service to the history of the IRA by 

writing the biography of Tom Williams, 

a well known but little-understood 

Belfast volunteer. 

Eighteen-year-old Williams, the 

respected if youthful Officer 

Commanding of Belfast's C Company, 

was sentenced to death in 1942 for 

fatally shooting RUC constable Patrick 

Murphy. He was hanged in Crumlin 

Road Prison on 2 September 1942. 

Nationalists believed that Williams 

should have been reprieved given that his 

five co-accused had their capital 

convictions mitigated to penal servitude 

following an international campaign for 

clemency. One of them, Joe Cahill, who 

went on to attain much influence in the 

IRA and later, Sinn F6in, contributes a 

strategy was to bolster the 'democratic 

centre' supporting the 1985 Anglo-Irish 

Agreement, and marginalize the 

republicans on the left and the unionists 

on the right. 

Of course, the Hume-Adams 

initiative made an inclusive settlement 

possible, the imperial strategy changed, 

and the world has moved on. 

But, imperialism, soft and hard, 

remains. It isn't the US alone that throws 

around 'democracy aid'— Germany's 

moving foreword. 

The perceived injustice of the Williams 

case in 1942 elicited action from Eamon 

De Valera, who had recently permitted the 

execution of IRA man George Plant in his 

own partitioned jurisdiction. 

The importance of this biography is 

underlined by the long-awaited reburial 

of Williams in January 2000, which 

attracted one of the biggest nationalist 

crowds in recent times. 

Born in 1923 into the part of Ireland 

which had just been hived off from the 

'Free State', Williams' parents were 

among the 23,000 burned out of their 

homes during the anti-Catholic pogroms 

which marked the birth of the sectarian 

northern statelet in 1920-22. 

Williams was an early republican and 

quickly progressed from the Fianna into 

a command position within the IRA. 

Tasked with diverting security forces 

from harassing the banned Easter 

parades of 1942, the ambush sprang by 

his unit went wrong. Murphy was not a 

premeditated victim and died in the 

shoot-out which followed his 

courageous tackling of the IRA men in 

their safe house. That Williams accepted 

sole blame for this incident, in breach of 

orders, ensured his status as a hero. 

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung was an early 

model. 

The right wing social democrats and 

Cold War liberals who are beguiled by 

such 'political party institutes' claim, 

correctly no doubt, that it is usually 

cheaper to seduce a politician, a 

journalist or a political party than to send 

in the US Marines 

Irish Democrat readers will be 

disappointed that this book by an official 

of the Carnegie Endowment leaves out 

Ireland completely, though NED/NDI 

maintains an active interest in Ireland, 

having given awards to all the pro-Good 

Friday Agreement Northern pany 

leaders at a swanky awards dinner in 

Washington DC about a year ago — an 

event addressed by President Clinton. 

Whatever Clinton's views, the 

omission of Ireland suggests it remains 

unimportant to the US foreign policy 

mandarins who move to and fro between 

think tanks and State Department posts, 

a permanent government. 

They have bigger fish to fry. 

Arguably, 'democracy aid', at least in the 

Irish case, so far, has been relatively 

harmless. It may have only meant a few 

SDLP operatives hanging about Senator 

Ted Kennedy's office for a summer. A 

A rich Irish narrative 

Ian McKeane reviews PAdraig O 

Fathalgh's War of 

Independence: recollections 

of a Galway Gaelic Leaguer 

by Timothy G. McMahon (ed.). Cork 

University Press, £8.99 pbk 

PADRAIG O FATHAIGH (1879-1976) 

was of the same generation of De Valera 

and, like him, blessed with longevity. 

His memoir, published in Cork UP's 

Irish narrative series, gives his account of 

his political and military activities 

mainly in his home region around Gort, 

Co. Galway in the period 1916 to 1922. 

He also describes periods of 

imprisonment in Ireland and in England. 

Light is thrown on the relationships 

forged (sometimes between unlikely 

comrades) and the contribution of the 

provincial Volunteers to the struggle for 

independence. 

This is a topic which is often 

neglected in general histories of the 

period but this little book is a rich source 

of information which adds to the general 

understanding and appreciation of the 

Policing and conflict In the North 

Ruan O'Donnell reviews The 

Crowned Harp: policing 

Northern Ireland by Graham 

Ellison and Jim Smyth, Pluto Press 

£14.99 pbk 

NO BOOK on the vexed subject of the 

Royal Ulster Constabulary could fail to 

be controversial and this latest volume 

on the theme is no exception. 

Ellison and Smyth are not to be 

envied in attempting this remarkably 

even handed assessment of the nature, 

role and merits of an organization which 

professes to function as a police force yet 

is widely regarded as an oppressive arm 

of the unionist statelet. 

Indeed, as recent events have shown, 

the remodelling of the RUC into an 

acceptable policing agency is possibly 

the single most important strand of the 

peace process. Extreme pressure has 

been brought to bear by unionists to 

ensure that the Patten report on policing. 

an intergral part of the Good Friday 

agreement, be modified to their liking 

whereas nationalist leaders have 

demanded that this crucial issue should 

not be renegotiated. 

A police force obliged to operate 

from fortified barracks and armoured 

personnel carriers whilst brandishing 

automatic rifles and wearing flak jackets 

is clearly incapable of carrying out 

police duties as generally understood in 

Britain and the Republic of Ireland. 

As is well known, this fatal 

disjunction between Ulster police and 

the Irish policed has arisen from a 

conflict in which over 300 RUC officers 

have been killed. Unionists portray this 

onslaught as an assault on their 

community and traditions whilst 

refusing to assess the social and political 

reasons for republican violence. 

While by no means sympathetic 

towards the republican position, this 

book explores the often vexed political 

developments which transformed the 

Royal Irish Constabulary into the 

markedly different RUC. Of key 

importance to recent events was the 

British military's 'Ulsterization' strategy 

of the 1980s which aimed to replace 

army with RUC personnel wherever 

possible, a practice which accentuated 

the combatant role of an agency that 

should have been committed to policing. 

A plethora of now notorious special 

units were added to the RUC 

establishment. Nationalists and 

republicans contend that the day-to-day 

actions of the RUC and its composition 

as an almost exclusively Protestant/ 

unionist milita not only fomented but 

perpetuated the conflict in the North. 

From the highly suspicious 'shoot to 

kill' operations carried out by highly 

trained RUC units in the 1980s and early 

1990s to the inexplicable inaction of 

armed 'police' who watched a 

Portadown mob inflict fatal injuries on 

the defenceless Robert Hamill, nonunionists 

within the six counties can 

few conferences about polling 

techniques. 

Elsewhere, US democracy aid is far 

from benign. The US 'democracy 

assistance' budget went from $165.2 

million in 1991 to $637 in 1999. It was 

spent mainly in ex-socialist states and in 

traditional areas of US dominance: Latin 

America, the Caribbean, the oil-rich 

Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. 

It flows to recipients in ways 

euphemistically called 'electoral aid', 

'rule-of-law aid', 'legislative strengthening', 

'local government development', 

'civilian-military relations', 'NGO 

building', 'civic education', 'media 

strengthening', and 'trade union 

building'. 

Carothers takes into account the 

views of sceptics on the left, who see 

'democracy promotion' as thinly 

disguised interventionism. 

But though a member of the liberal 

wing of the American foreign policy 

establishment he ultimately dismisses 

the critics of democracy aid. 

Under both major parties, expect the 

'democracy aid' budget to rise. Under a 

Bush or a Gore the next US 

Administration will likely try to market 

'democracy', as if it were a bar of soap. 

role of those who were not based in the 

cities. 

There are many unexpected details. 

O Fathaigh's humanity shines out in his 

frequent assertions that he was generally 

well treated by ordinary British soldiers 

and prison warders. He makes explicit 

the fact that the Irish Volunteers/IRA 

were at war with the British state, not its 

lowly servants. At first reading this 

seems hardly credible but is borne out by 

other personal accounts of the period. 

The description of the interference by 

the Royal Irish Constabulary and the 

Black and Tans with his youngest sister's 

funeral in 1921 is poignant indeed. The 

simple image of a "loyalist" neighbour 

remonstrating with the 'Tans and getting 

pistol whipped for his pains, tells much 

about provincial Ireland in those days. 

My only caveat is that O Fathaigh 

completed the memoir in 1968 in old age 

and just before the Northern 'Troubles' 

started. One cannot but wonder if his 

decision to write nothing about the civil 

war period and the coincidence of 

completing the work before the modern 

'Troubles' coloured his account. 

Nevertheless, this is an excellent little 

book and a worthy addition to an original 

and useful series. 

draw on an appalling litany of episodes 

in which the ostensible upholders of law 

and order have been implicated. 

Collusion with loyalist paramilitaries 

and other highly contentious subjects are 

among those covered in The Crowned 

Harp, a book which charts the record of 

policing theory and practise in the north 

of Ireland with style and economy. 

Pernicious weed 

in the garden 

Ruairi O Domhnaill reviews 

Scotland's Shame? Bigotry 

and sectarianism in modern 

Scotland by :.M. Devine (ed.) 

Mainstream Publishing, £9.99 pbk 

r « 

S C O T L A : /s 

SHAht 

Bmntrv ami Sectarianism 

% in Miulcrii Sniitlailll 

miu 

THE COMPILATION and publication 

of these 21 essays written between 

August 1999 and April 2000 

encompasses a Catholic bishop and 

more leading academics than you could 

shake a stick at. 

Last August, Scotland's leading 

composer, James MacMillan, surprised 

many by publicly attacking his country's 

bigotry. He was competently supported 

and severely criticised. 

Generally, contentions fall into three 

categories. First, in Professor Riley's 

words: "Protestants found work, 

unemployed Catholics were left to find 

comfort... in the fact that they were 

suffering for their faith". 

An intermediate grouping employs 

the Stephen Potter "not-in-the-south" 

tactic, allowing an opponent to justify his 

position and then countering "but not in 

the south!" This ploy is used to support 

opposing arguments. For example, 

bigotry thrived in Scotland, but not in 

Aberdeen, where few Irish lived. 

Conversely, sectarianism universally 

faded away, but not in Larkhall. 

Professor Riley also outlined the 

third position: "there is no employment 

discrimination in Scotland, and if 

Cathoiics closed their schools, there 

would be even less." Among its 

adherents, it was widely held that the 

(profligate) Irish were to blame for 

bigotry. 

Steve Bruce makes his case deftly, 

affirming that Scottish people are 

divided religiously and culturally 

between the (evangelic) Highlanders and 

the Lowland Sassenach. Although 

Scottish and Northern Irish unionists 

hold similar views, the latter are 

primarily driven by fear of the 

indigenous majority. 

In the 17th century the English called 

the inhabitants of Scotland the "Wild 

Irish". By 1925, the Church of Scotland 

distinguished between the "virile and 

competent" Scottish and "the redundant 

population of Ireland". The following 

year, this leading Christian establishment 

(reluctantly) advocated "an inferior race 

(be) supplanted by a superior". 

Hugh Trevor-Roper regarded this 

superior race as the "unlettered poor 

kinsmen" of the Irish. "Once the links 

with Ireland had been cut and the 

Scottish Highlands had acquired — 

however fraudulently — an independent 

culture, the way was open to signalize 

that independence by peculiar traditions" 

— largely invented in the 19th century. 

Racial superiority may owe something to 

resources like coal and iron and 'good' 

propaganda.



Reviews/culture 

i t w n - o u t 

Gerard Curran's songs page 

Sources said... 

The queen of Irish song 

Aiitmi O Ham reviews The Songs 

of Elizabeth Cronin: Irish 

traditional singer tbook & 2 

CDs). Ddibhi'O Croim'n led.). Four 

Courts Press, £25 pbk 

FOLK SONG collectors are usually 

easily pleased, and even one gem of a 

song from a singer will leave them 

feeling happy enough; but being only 

human, they live in hope of 'striking 

gold' some time, and of finding a singer 

who has a whole store of songs — the 

collectors' equivalent of winning the 

Lotto. 

This was certainly the case with 

Elizabeth Bess' Cronin of 

Bally voumey, Co. Cork, who left not just 

one, but several collectors feeling they 

were in 'seventh heaven', so happy they 

were with breadth and depth of her huge 

Colin McConnell reviews Rebels by 

Peter tie Rosa, Poolbeg, £7.99 pbk unci 

The Politics of Language in 

Ireland 1366-1922. by Tony 

Crowley Routledge. £15.99 (pbk) 

RF-ISSUFD TEN years after it was was 

first published, de Rosa's fictional 

account of the 1916 rising includes a 

wealth of detail, including elements not 

usually included, such as the voyage of 

the Aud from Germany to Tralee Bay. 

This long and dangerous journey, 

seen through the eyes of ship's captain 

Karl Spindler, brings home his confusion 

and frustration at the failure of the Irish 

to make contact in Tralee. The drawing 

together of the American and German 

threads in the years leading up to the 

Critics' forum 

Frank Foley reviews New Voices In 

Irish Criticism. P.J. Mathews (Ed). 

Four Courts Press, £14.95 

IN SPRING 1998, Professor Declan 

Kiberd convened a series of seminars on 

'Theorizing Ireland', providing a forum 

for young academics, intent on elevating 

Irish criticism to the status of Irish 

literature. 

Criticism is adjudged "a necessary 

concomitant of a healthy cultural 

Irish musical feast 

Ruairi O Domhnaill reviews R6alta 

2000 — Seachain an Oiche. 

RTF in conjunction with Radio na 

Gaeltachta (cd & cassette) and 

Amhr6in 6 Shliabh gCua; le 

LabhrAs 6 Cadhla, RTF 234 (cd) 

GAELIC IS by no means essential to 

enjoy Realta 2000. In fact in view of the 

occasional criminal Bearlachas 

(Englishism). Teanga ar Sinsear may be 

a definite handicap here! 

Hoping for An Spailpin Fdnach, I 

first played Go Deo Deo. The 

(thankfully brief) Country & Western 

style introduction left me in no doubt — 

nothing here about the invincible spirit of 

the worktr-Gael. It was, however, great, 

lively fun, with slightly daffy lyrics. 

It set the tone for a paradox — 

brilliant pop music! Men's contributions 

\ : i I I jU) \ I \ 

repertoire of songs in Gaelic and 

English. 

The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin: Irish 

A novel approach to 

the Easter rebellion 

rising, through the work of John Devoy 

and Roger Casement, is also well 

documented. 

With the capture of the Aud the scene 

moves to Dublin where members of the 

Military Council have to counter Eoin 

MacNeill's opposition to an armed revolt. 

In the anecdotal style adopted by de 

Rosa, the events of Easter week are given 

an immediacy rarely found in books on 

this subject, and the characters, whether 

major or minor, are brought vividly to 

life. 

The description of the final days of 

each of the rebels executed, and their last 

meetings with their families, is 

particularly poignant. 

I had difficulty with the authenticity 

of some of the dialogue, particularly the 

way in which the author attempted to 

output". 

The resulting essays embrace 

politics, history, literature and literary 

theory in a variety of styles and from 

disparate perspectives. 

Mathews deftly captures the reader's 

attention with Greg Dobbing's excellent 

contribution, which distinguishes James 

Connolly as "the first Marxist theorist 

who wrote from the perspective of the 

colonised". 

Dobbing also associates Connolly 

with James Joyce's anxiety concerning 

the uses of history for political purposes. 

'Theorizing the Novel' follows, with 

the well-argued essay on Irish 

seem happier, if more deranged. The 

exception Fill a Run, compensates with 

some the real (pre-Beatle) beat. 

Although Melanie O'Reilly's Amhran 

na Mflaoise is vivacious, it is a loiterer 

compared with Sean Monaghan's 

sensitive collection, which includes 

Dreoih'n — 'the wren', eaten by his cat 

in the first verse. 

This is a compilation of the winning 

tunes from an annual competition run by 

Radio na Gaeltachta and RTIi. Without a 

'Boom-bang-a-bang', it demonstrates 

why Ireland can win the European Song 

Contest at will. Great fun and worth 

thrice the price (£8.99). 

Amhrdin 6 Sliabh gCua maintains a 

distinguished historical link with the 

hedge schools of the 18th and 19th 

centuries. Labhrls 6 Cadhla's 

unaccompanied songs were recorded 

over two decades from 1937 and are 

sung in the dialect of north Waterford 

and south Tipperary. It is, I fear, is for the 

cognoscenti. 

traditional singer is a collection of some 

2(H) songs and song fragments with 

words, staff notation, plus detailed and 

informative notes on the songs. 

And if that wasn't enough to whet the 

appetite, the 332-page volume comes 

with two compact discs containing 59 

examples of Bess Cronin's singing, 

selected from some 130 recordings 

known to exist. 

The book includes several 

illustrations, including photos of Bess 

being recorded by the BBC, cl950, and 

reproductions of the words of songs in 

Bess's own handwriting. At 25 pounds 

for the book and CDs, that has to be the 

bargain of the year. 

The volume's editor is Daibhf O 

Croinin, grandson of Bess Cronin, and 

the publication's strengths on several 

levels owe much to his in-depth 

knowledge of family matters and his 

The Politics of 

Language in Ireland 

1366-1922 

render phonetically the accent of 

Countess Markievicz, but this is a minor 

quibble about this otherwise informative 

and entertaining web of fact and fiction. 

9 The Politics of Language in Ireland 

brings together for the first time almost 

700 years of political texts, from the 

Bildungsroman, by Kathryn L. Kleypas, 

comparing the work of Edna O'Brien 

with James Joyce and expressing the 

fundamental differences between male 

and female coming-of-age models. 

Moynagh Sullivan's examination of 

dialogue between feminist theory and 

Irish studies, is among the more 

theoretically-orientated work. So is 

Derek Hand's 'John Banville and Irish 

History: the Newton Letter', which 

states: "In the modem/postmodern world 

there can be no distinction made 

between different texts and different 

genres." 

Orthodox post-structuralism tends 

Anniversary Parade 

Chris Maguire selects some notable 

days for August and September 

August 2 Private James Daly, 1st 

Battalion Connaught Rangers, executed 

in the Punjab, age 22, for his part in a 

mutiny against repression in Ireland, 

1920; George Bernard Shaw, playwright, 

dies Ayot St Lawrence, Herts, 1950. 

August 4 John Dillon, the last leader of 

the Home Rule party, dies, 1927. 

August 9 Internment introduced in the 

North, 1971 (300 were arrested under the 

Special Powers Act). 

August 11 Eamon de Valera leads Fianna 

F&il deputies into the D&il for the first 

time, 1927. 

August 12 Kilmainham jail in Dublin 

opened, 1796; Arthur Griffith, founder of 

Sinn F6in, dies 1922. 

August 13 British troops deployed in the 

North for the first time during the most 

recent phase of the Irish conflict, 1969. 

academic background (he lectures in 

history at the National University of 

Ireland in Galway). 

His writing in the Irish and English 

languages is full of scholarship and 

insight, and is a joy to read. His 

prodigious efforts in compiling this new 

publication is a saga in itself, and lovers 

of folk song will treasure it for the 

monumental work it is. 

The book contains everything Daibhf 

O Croim'n was able to recover of his 

grandmother's repertoire, and it is his 

hope, he says, that "by making this 

material accessible once again, the 

unique voice and style that were the 

hallmarks of her singing will inspire 

present-day singers and lovers of Irish 

songs and ballads..." 

Seamus Ennis called Bess 'The 

queen of Irish song', and the remastered 

recordings from public and private 

collections illustrate the wide range of 

her repertoire, which included child 

ballads, lullabies, dandling songs, and 

humorous songs. 

Statute of Kilkenny of 1366 to the 

Constitution of the Free State 1922. 

Crowley's introduction connects 

these texts to current debates and, taking 

the Belfast agreement as an example, he 

illustrates how language debates continue 

to have historical resonance today. 

towards this type of oversimplification, 

ignoring the fact that we can and do 

make these distinctions. Sullivan, by 

contrast, suggests a more subtle 

approach; a sceptical awareness of 

subjective bias, a mood rather than an 

adherence to the rules of post 

structuralism. 

To dwell on such matters, however, 

would be to distort the overall effect of 

New Voices, which is both balanced and 

informative. 

This volume corroborates PJ 

Matthews' claim that this is a period of 

great productivity and expansion for 

Irish studies. 

August 14 IRA hunger striker Martin 

Hurson, aged 27, died after 46 days 

without food, 1981. 

August 16 Parnell made a Freeman of 

Dublin City, 1882, Peterloo Massacre 

takes place St. Peter's Field, Manchester 

1819. 

August 23 Sacco and Vanzetti wrongly 

sent to electric chair in US following 

conviction for payroll robbery, 1927. 

August 25 James (Jemmy) Hope, United 

Irishman, bom Antrim, 1764. 

August 29 Eamon de Valera, politician 

and statesman, dies, 1973. 

September 1 Constance Wilde drags 

Oscar to demonstration in Hyde Park in 

support of striking dockers, 1889. 

September 2 John Howard, prison 

reformer, bom Hackney, London 1726. 

His work is continued by the Howard 

League for Penal Reform. 

September 4 Connolly Association 

founded at the Old Engineers' Hall, 

Doughty Street, Camden, London, 1938. 

September 6 Oliver Bond, United 

Seamus 6 

Cionnfhaola 

An Raibh tu an 

gCarraig? 

Have you been at 

Carrick? 

I learned this song many years ago from 

Fionan Mac Cullam whilst at the Irish 

College summer school in Ring, Co. 

Waterford. Although Fionan insisted that 

it was a Munster song with many places 

in Ireland sharing the same name, 

including Carrick-on-Shannon, Canickon-Suir, 

it is hard to fix a precise locality. 

In this truly Irish song the young man 

learns that his absent mistress is not lovesick 

like himself. He praises the beauty 

of her hair, drinks a glass to her health, 

enumerates his suffering, swears to 

forego sex forever and greets his lovely 

maid with such a welcome as an Irish 

lover can give. 

An Raibh tu an gCarraig no an bhfeaca 

tu ann mo ghradh? 

No an bhfaca tu gile, fine agus sceimh na 

nina, 

No an bhfaca tu an t-ubhal, ba cubharta 

is ba mhillse blath, 

No an bhfaca tu mo bhailantin no an 

bhfuil si da claoi mar ataim. 

Do bhfosa ag an hCarraig is do chonnaic 

me ann do ghrddh, 

Do chonnaic me gile fine agus sceimh na 

mna, 

Do chonnaic me ant-ubhal ba chubhra is 

ba mhillise blath, 

Do chonnaic me do bhailintin agus ni'l si 

da claoi mar a tair. 

Is fiu chuig ghinf gach ribe da gruaigh 

mar 6ir, 

Is fiu oiread eile a cneas uair roimh lo, 

A cuilin trom tripileach ag titim lef si'os 

go fe6r, 

's a chuichin na finne, ar mhiste do 

shlainte a d'ol. 

Focloir 

(vocabulary & translation notes) 

an bhfaca tu (did you see) 

sceimh na mnd (the beauty of women) 

cubhartha (bright, joyful) 

mo bhailantin (my love) 

claoi (defeated) 

gach ribe dd gruaigh mar oir (each strand 

of her hair like gold) 

cneas (complexion) 

triopallach (clustering, hanging in 

festoons or curls) 

go fcor/go f6ar (down to the grass or 

ground) 

ar mhiste do shl&inte a d'ol? (would it be 

fitting to drink to your health) 

Irishman, convicted of high treason and 

sentenced to hang, dies suddenly in 

prison, 1798. 

September 9 First V2 missiles landed in 

Britain, 1944 

September 11 colonel Thomas Kelly 

and captain Timothy Deasy, senior 

Fenian organisers and veterans of the 

American civil war, arrested in Oak St. 

Manchester and charged under the 

Vagrancy Act, 1867. 

September 13 British TUC votes for 

nationalisation of coal mines, 1919. 

September 17 Nazi sympathiser 

William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) was put 

on trial for treason, 1945. 

September 21 William T. Cosgrove 

becomes first Taoiseach, 1923. 

September 26 First congress of Saor 

Eire, a radical party of workers and 

working farmers, whose key organisers 

included Peadar O'Donnell, Michael 

Fitzpatrick, Michael Price, Sean Russell 

and David Fitzpatrick, opens in Dublin, 

1931. 

A Parcel of Rogues 

in a Nation 

This Robert Burns' song makes clear how the 1707 

union of Scotland and England was brought about. The 

same methods were used in 1800 to bring about the 

union of Britain and Ireland. 

Farewell to our Scottish fame, 

Farewell our ancient glory! 

Farewell e'en to the Scottish name 

Sae famed in martial story. 

Now Sark rins over Solway sands 

An' Tweed rins to the ocean, 

To mark where England's province ends — 

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation! 

What force or guile could not subdue 

Thro' many warlike ages 

Is wrought now by a coward few 

For hireling traitor's wages. 

The English steel we could disdain, 

Secure in valour's station; 

But English gold has been our bane — 

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation. 

O, would, or I had seen the day 

That treason thus could sell us 

My auld grey head had lien in clay 

Wi' Bruce and loyal Wallace! 

But pith and power, till my last hour 

I'll make this declaration: 

'We're bought and sold for English gold' — 

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation. 

Ireland, or the 

32 Counties 

One of the banners used in Connolly Association 

marches throughout the 1950s and 60's was inscribed 

with the words, 'Ireland One Country'. This song was 

written by T.D.Sullivan. 

Here's to Donegal and her people brave and tall 

Here's to Antrim Leitrim and Derry. 

Here's to Cavan and Louth, 

Here's to Carlow in the south 

Here's to Longford, Waterford and Kerry! 

Chorus 

Then clink, glasses clink — 'tis a toast for all to drink, 

And let every voice come in the chorus: 

For Ireland is our home, and wherever we may roam. 

We'll be true to the dear land that bore us. 

Here's to Tyrone, where O'Neill held his own; 

Here's to Monaghan, Fermanagh and Kildare, boys 

Spectre the voice of the anti-EU left in Europe 

Here's to her whose stroke broke the hateful Penal 

yoke, 

And you know, that's the brave Co. Clare boys. 

Here's to Sligo and to Down, to Armagh of old renow n; 

Here's to Kilkenny, famed in story. 

Here's to Wexford, boys, for she nearly set all Ireland 

free, 

And here's to royal Meath and her glory . 

Here's to Galway, and Mayo, that never feared a foe, 

Here's to Wicklow, it's peaks and it's passes; 

Here's to Limerick, famous over all for its well defined 

wall, 

And still more for the beauty of its lasses! 

Here's to gallant Cork, the next county to New York; 

Here is to Roscommon, bright and airy; 

Here's to Westmeath, where a tyrant can scarcely 

breathe; 

And here's to unconquered Tipperary! 

Queen's county, too, we'll toast and the King's for both 

can boast 

There are spots, the invader got some trouble in; 

And now to finish up, fill a bright and brimming cup. 

And we'll drink boys for Jolly little Dublin! 

Up and Away 

(Helicopter Song) 

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This song can be found on the Dublin City Ramblers' 

excellent Irish Republican Jail Songs tape. Copies of 

the tape can be obtained or ordered, along with many 

other Irish music titles (cd and cassette) from the Four 

Provinces Bookshop in London. 

Up like a bird and high o'er the city 

Three men are missing, 1 heard a warder cry 

Shure it must have been a bird that flew into the prison 

Or one of those new ministers said the warder from 

Mountjoy 

Early one morning as the branchmen were sleeping 

A little helicopter flew in from the sky 

Down into the yard where some prisoners were walking 

Get ready for inspection, said the warder in the 'Joy 

Down in the yard through the pushing and the shoving 

Three of the prisoners, they climbed upon the bird 

And up and away they went into the grey skies 

I think someone escaped said the wander in the 'Joy 

Chorus 

Over in the Dail they were drinking gin and brandy 

The minister for Justice was soaking up the sun 

Then came this little message that some prisoners were 

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Return this coupon with your name, address and cheque made out to "Socialist 

Campaign Group News' to: 

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escaping 

I think its three of the Provos said the warder in the Joy 

Search every hole, search every nook and cranny 

Let no man rest till these men are found 

For this cannot happen to a law and order government 

I think you'll never find them said the warder in 

Mountjoy. 

Chorus (repeated) 

When Erin Wakes 

When progress is slow at present in Northern Ireland, 

going over the old battles and names of ancient hemes 

helps us to be patient and to remember the need for 

allies. It also helps to keep faith in persuasion and 

negotiation. This song was written by Percy French to 

be sung to the air The Flight of The Earls. 

Let newer nations fill the stage 

And vaunt them to the sky, 

The Gael has still a heritage, 

That gold can never buy. 

The mountains may be bleak and bare. 

Forlorn the countryside 

But great Cuhulainn battles there 

And Red Branch heroes died 

But as of old our headland bold 

Still front the raging sea 

And may our band united stand 

As fearless and as free. 

1 hear the lays of other days 

In martial numbers flow, 

Kind death's the only sword that stays 

The march of Owen Roe. 

At Fontenoy the breezes bore 

The war cry of the Gael, 

And Saxon standards fled before 

The sons of Innisfail, 

And as of old our headlands bold 

Still front the raging sea 

So may our band united stand. 


Beneath the rath the heroes sleep, 

Their steeds beside them stand 

Each falchion from its sheath shall leap 

To guard old Ireland: 

The legend we may yet fulfil 

And play the heroes part, 

For Sarsfield's spirit slumbers still 

In many an Irish heart; 

And as of old our headlands bold 

Still front the raging sea, 

So may our band united stand 


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Open 11am-4pm, Tuesday to Saturday 

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Association, 244 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8JR 

PETER MULLIGAN'S regular 

trawl through the press 

Bloody Sunday — 'The soldier, labelled 

027, was quoted in a document saying 

that colleagues pumped off' rounds into 

the crowd, with one trooper wounding a 

man then finishing him off in the gutter. 

He also said that soldiers used dum-dum 

bullets." (The Times) 

Loyalism — "A leading member of the 

Democratic Unionist Party was accused 

yesterday of pleading with loyalists 

terrorists not to decommission their 

weapons. The Rev William McCrea 

visited Mark Fulton, the LVF chief of 

staff at the time, 'to seek to persuade that 

organisation not to decommission any of 

its weapons,' according to a House of 

Commons motion tabled by Harry 

Barnes MP and Peter Bottomley, the 

former Conservative Northern Ireland 

Secretary." (The Times) 

Unionist reforms — "Mr Trimble 

confirmed that he was proposing reforms 

that would greatly reduce the role of the 

Protestant Orange Order in his party's 

affairs. His plan, is seen as intended to 

free him from hardline opponents of the 

Good Friday deal." (The Times) 

Perfidious Albion — "The bill is a 

fundamental breach of faith, perfidious 

Britannia in caricature. It represents Old 

Britain; it was drafted by the forces of 

conservatism, for the forces of 

conservatism. It keeps or preserves the 

powers of the secretary of state, the 

Northern Ireland Office, and the chief 

constable. Unamended the bill will 

ensure that neither the SDLP or Sinn 

F6in sit on the policing boards, 

orrecommend their constituents to join 

the police; that the RUC remains 

unrefonned; and that leakage from the 

provisionals into the Real and Continuity 

IRAs will grow into a stream." (Brendan 

O'Leary, The Guardian) 

A warning — "Mandleson, has been 

warned by David Trimble, that an early 

election could see his party defeated in 

the province (sic) by Ian Paisley's 

Democrat Unionist Party in a backlash 

against 'concessions' to Sinn F6in." 

(Sunday Times) 

High twing — 'Trimble was elected 

leader on the back of facing down the 

government at Drumcree and taking a 

harder line than Jim Molyneaux. 

Vanguard and its marching rallies didn't 

hurt either... When you attain leadership 

and try to use it to reach an 

accommodation which will stabilise 

your gains, that is the moment of greatest 

vulnerability, that is the moment when 

you bare your throat to the knife. In 

David Burnside, the UUP's gifted 

candidate for South Antrim, David 

Trimble is looking at his likely 

successor." (Liam Clarke, Sunday Times) 

last word 

f'We Protestants of the Irish Republic 

are no longer very interesting to anyone 

but ourselves. A generation ago we were 

regarded as imperialistic blood-suckers, 

or, by our admirers, as the last 

champions of civilization in an 

abandoned island. That is the way the 

Roman settler may have appeared to 

himself and others when the legions had 

departed from Britain and he was left 

alone with the tribes he has dispossessed. 

Our brothers north of the border are still 

discussed in such colourful terms; as for 

ourselves, we merely exist and even that 

we do with increasing 

unobtrusiveness 5 5 

Hubert Butler in Escape from the 

Anthill, 1985.

Anonn Is Anall: The Peter Berresford Ellis Column 

IRISII Oemociuc 

Defender 

of the real 

Ulster 

tradition 

Peter Berresford Ellis highlights the life and work of 

the medical pioneer and cultural polymath James 

MacE*onnell, a true representive of the progressive 

tradition among Ulster's protestant population 

NOW '['HAT we have entered into a 

new phase of conflict resolution in the 

six counties, the real task of education 

has to begin. There is nothing more 

daunting than the work of trying to 

overturn the deliberate English 

colonial policy, commenced after 1798, of 

subverting the progressive and republican traditions 

of the Protestant Dissenters of Ulster and creating in 

them a force for reaction and unionism. 

In an ideal world, had the New Labour 

government subscribed to a progressive, moral 

ideology it would have made a public acceptance of 

the role London governments have played in 

creating conflict in Ulster by its divide et impera 

policies through the 19th century; it should have 

accepted that its moral duty was to help resolve the 

divisions created by the colonial system by 

embarking on an education programme designed to 

show the truth of that subversive and divisive policy 

to separate Dissenter and Catholic and keep them in 

a state of mutual antagonism. 

It is not an ideal world and the government has 

sat back pretending to be guiltless and uninvolved in 

the conflict it has created. It maintains the lie that it 

is a 'peace keeper' between two warring factions. In 

the meantime, it is left to others to attempt to 

demonstrate the reality of England's savage colonial 

policy in Ulster. 

Ulster Protestants are forever conjuring-up their 

forefathers and making claims for their beliefs. One 

great luminary of Ulster history is Dr James 

MacDonnell (1763-1845) whose bust stands in 

Belfast Museum. He is regarded as the 'Father of 

Belfast Medicine', founder of the Belfast 

Dispensary and Fever Hospital, in 1792, the direct 

ancestor of the Royal Victoria Hospital. 

Ulster Protestants are justly proud of 

MacDonnell though, sadly, for only selected 

reasons. He was more than just a medical pioneer 

and cultural polymath who was a great benefactor to 

the city of Belfast. He also denounced religious 

bigotry, demanded emancipation for Catholics, was 

progressive in politics, and a close friend of Wolfe 

Tone, Thomas Russell and Henry Joy McCracken 

and other leaders of the United Irishmen. He was an 

Irish speaker, played the clarsach, and organised the 

famous Irish Harp Festival of 1792 in Belfast. He 

was also a founder of the Belfast Reading Society in 

1788 which is now the Linenhall Library and one of 

the movers of the foundation of the Belfast Society 

for the Preservation of the Irish Language. 

MacDonnell was a remarkable representative of 

the true tradition of Ulster Protestantism. He was 

born on April 14, 1763, at Red Bay, near 

MacDonnell saw the 

results of the London 

government's policy 

to create animosity 

between the 

religious sects 

Cushendall, on the Antrim coast. Born into an 

Episcopalian Protestant family, he was a descendant 

of the ancient Gaelic chiefs, The MacDonnell of the 

Glens, who were once Kings of DS1 Riada, Lords of 

the Isles, tracing their descent back to Eremon, son 

of Milesius. James and his brothers received their 

first steps in education in a 'hedge school', a cave 

where Maurice Traynor, a Catholic, taught both 

Protestants and Catholics alike. 

James MacDonnell, spending his early years in 

the Glens, grew up with a knowledge of Irish still 

spoken in the area. In 1820 nearly a quarter of 

Antrim was Irish speaking. Even by the 1851 

Census, Glenarm was still 14.9 per cent Irish 

speaking. During this time, 'Blind' Art O'Neill, an 

itinerant harpist, stayed with the MacDonnell family 

for two years and taught the three boys the harp. 

On leaving his 'cave school' James and his 

brothers moved to Belfast where they attended 

David Manson's school in Donegall Street before 

moving on to another run byRev. Nicholas Garrett, 

'the Belfast Latin schoolmaster'. 

In 1780 young James went to Edinburgh to study 

medicine. He obtained his degree in medicine and 

returned to Belfast, setting up his practice at 13 

Donegall Place. One of his sponsors was Dr 

Alexander Haliday, son of the Rev. Samuel Haliday, 

the first Presbyterian minister in Ulster to refuse to 

subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith 

and was tried as a heretic by the Synod for his pains. 

Soon James had a thriving practice and a 

growing reputation as a caring physician and 

benefactor to the poor and needy. But he also had 

many other interests. In 1788 he was one of eighteen 

founder members of the Belfast Reading Society. 

In July, 1792, he was co-organiser of the national 

harp festival which took place over four days in the 

Exchange Rooms in Belfast. Sixteen years later, on 

St Patrick's Day, 1808, MacDonnell became 

founder and Vice President of the Irish Harp Society 

with its resident academy at 21 Cromac Street for 

blind pupils. Even as late as 1840 MacDonnell was 

stirring Edward Bunting to more efforts to preserve 

the music and language of Ireland. 

Indeed, MacDonnell helped to stir the efforts in 

Belfast to stop the decline and restore the Irish 

language. On July 17, 1807, he had helped to 

finance James Cody's Irish language 'Institution' at 

8 Pottinger's Entry. 

IT WOULD have been strange had 

MacDonnell not been involved in the United 

Irishmen politics of the 1790s. He is 

mentioned in Wolfe Tone's Journal as early 

as October 13, 1791, during Tone's first trip 

to Belfast. Indeed, significantly, Tone stayed 

at MacDonnell's house that October while the 

Belfast Society of United Irishmen was being 

formed. 

MacDonnell was not only in the company of 

Wolfe Tone but Thomas Russell, Henry Joy 

McCracken, Samuel Neilson, William Sinclair, and 

many other leading Belfast republicans, including 

Archibald Hamilton Rowan. 

Tone, in his second trip to Belfast, also stayed 

with MacDonnell who, in Tone's papers became 

referred to by the cipher 'the Hypocrite', derived 

from Hippocrates, the historic Greek physician, 

whose Hippocratic oath is the moral code of all 

doctors. 

Tone stayed with MacDonnell in May, 1795, 

when en route for America and MacDonnell gave 

him a present of 'a small medicine chest with 

written directions' for use on the voyage. He even 

went to Belfast Quay to see Tone off on his journey. 

In January, 1792, MacDonnell spoke in a public 

debate in Belfast demanding immediate 

emancipation for Catholics. 

Around 1791 MacDonnell met a former British 

Army officer, Thomas Russell (1767-1803), a Cork 

man, who had sold his commission and was now 

organising the United Irish Society. Russell was 

penniless and MacDonnell offered him hospitality 

in his house from October, 1792, to February, 1794, 

and appointed him librarian a the Linenhall Library 

at a salary of £30 raising, on MacDonnell's advice, 

to £50 a year. 

In 1796 Russell was arrested and sent to Fort 

George. He continued a correspondence with 

MacDonnell. He was released in 1802 when he 

joined Robert Emmet's rising, was arrested and 

executed for treason in 1803. 

With his friendships and liaisons with the United 

Irishmen, with his avowed belief in the Irish nation 

and its culture, in full civil and religious liberty, how 

far did MacDonnell go in support of the armed 

straggle to bring about a republic? 

His cousin Randal MacDonnell in Mayo was 

named as Vice President of the Connacht Republic 

while another cousin. Colonel John Joseph 

MacDonnell, commanded some of the United Irish 

insurgent forces. 

When Henry Joy McCracken was hanged at 

Belfast Market House on July 17, 1798, his sister. 

Mary Anne McCracken sent for MacDonnell in an 

attempt to resuscitate the corpse. Hanging, in those 

days, was usually slow strangulation and not the 

breaking of the neck. MacDonnell had written a 

thesis on resuscitating drowned people and the 

theory was equally applicable to those suffering 

strangulation. 

MacDonnell could not attend but sent his 

surgeon brother, Alexander, but, as history knows, 

without success. 

In latter years MacDonnell avowed that he was 

against the French connection and when he was 

eighty years old he maintained that he was only a 

moderate reformer and not in favour of 'the wild 

republicans'. It did not look that way in the 1790s. 

But it may well be, after the failure of 1798, James 

MacDonnell decided to downplay his views and 

friendships as a means of self protection. 

In 1797 he had established as six bed hospital in 

Factory Row as The Belfast Dispensary and Fever 

Hospital. Funding was the problem and the hospital 

moved several times changing its name until in 1899 

it moved to the site on Grosvenor Road as the Royal 

Victoria Hospital. 

It would have been 

strange had MacDonnell 

not been involved in the 

United Irishmen politics 

of the 1790s 

He was a prime founder of the Belfast 

Academical Institution (the Belfast 'Inst') opened in 

1810. Dr William Drennan, poet and former United 

Irishman, opened it with a stirring address and its 

first stipendary secretary was the northern 1798 

United Irish leader Robert Simms. It was to be the 

first medical school outside of Dublin. 

As he approached the end of his life 

MacDonnell saw with distress the results of the 

London government's policy to create animosity 

between the religious sects. Presbyterians from 

1834 were now being allowed to join the former 

elite Anglican Orange Order. 

Henry Cooke, the Ian Paisley of his day, was 

busy rabble-rousing with hate and invective against 

Catholics. MacDonnell was particularly distressed 

when the new intolerance of the Ulster Presbyterian 

Synod had indirectly forced the closure of the 

Institution's Faculty of Arts in 1841. 

On April 13, 1841, MacDonnell, giving a gift of 

many valuable volumes of books to the Institution, 

he wrote that the books were to remain under the 

control of himself or his heirs. 

"My motive for making this request is that I 

perceive a tendency of late among some... to narrow 

their noble Institution into a sectarian 

establishment... my object is to lay knowledge open 

to all like the water, the dew, the view of heaven, and 

not circumscribed by the boundaries of any 

particular sect... I claim the privilege of placing my 

donation so that it could not be thrown out at the 

discretion of any one particular sect of Christians." 

MacDonnell died on April 5, 1845, aged 82 

years. On April 9, his funeral cortege left for 

Cushendall in the Glens of Antrim. He was interred 

in Layde Churchyard under a large Celtic cross. 

On his death, his kinsman, Aodh Mac 

Domhnaill (Hugh MacDonnell) published an elegy 

Tuireadh an Dochtuir Mhic Domhnaill (a Lament 'o 

Dr MacDonnell). MacDomhnaill was considered to 

be one of the best of the Oriel school of Irish poets 

and one of many renown Irish language poets, both 

Protestant and Catholic, to emerged from the Glens 

of Antrim. 

The printed elegy is rare. Its publication was 

paid for by Robert Mac Adam (1808-95) advocate of 

the Irish language, collection of Irish manuscripts, 

author of an Irish Grammar and founder and editor 

of the Ulster Journal of Archaeology (1853-1862). 

When the new Presbyterian intolerance forced 

MacDonnell out of being employed as an Irish 

teacher in the Glens, MacAdam employed him 

directly to translate old manuscripts. 

It is progressives like MacDonnell who should 

concern us in our examination of Ulster Protestant 

traditions and not archaic primitives like Ian Paisley. 

The most pressing task is to reacquaint ourselves 

and the unionist community of the six counties with 

the real historic traditions of Ulster.

Irish Democrat August - September 2000

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